Residential utility customers could help pay for expensive electric infrastructure. Critics say data centers will benefit.

Rate payers in Pennsylvania and neighboring states could help fund an $11.6 billion expansion of the regional power grid amid predictions of surging electricity demand.  

In December, PJM Interconnection — the organization that coordinates the flow of electricity to utilities across 13 states and the District of Columbia — reviewed a list of potential transmission projects, a bundle of infrastructure improvements deemed necessary to meet federal standards for reliable service.

Ultimately, the projects would support the flow of electricity across the region, which Jeff Shields, PJM senior manager of external communications, said will benefit all customers.

The expansion could cost $11.6 billion, nearly double an estimate released last year. The projects still require board approval.  

If approved, the bundle will be PJM’s largest transmission expansion plan in terms of scope and cost, said Shields. He attributed the cost to increased demand, driven mostly by data centers and the electrification of vehicles and heating systems for buildings.  

But data centers, not residential utility customers, stand to gain the most from certain projects, said Jon Gordon, director of Advanced Energy United, a national industry association that advocates for public policies supporting clean energy.

“It appears that the beneficiaries of these transmission upgrades are very specific,” Gordon said. “If it weren't for this huge growth in data centers, we wouldn't be seeing an $11.6 billion transmission upgrade.”

After OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022, a subsequent boom in artificial intelligence pushed more developers to consider building data centers in the PJM region.

In 2021, PJM estimated demand for electricity would grow by an average of 0.3% each year for the next decade. In 2026, the estimated growth rate is 3.6% annually for the next decade. The new transmission expansion could accommodate predicted demand.

But an initial analysis from the Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate, a state agency that advocates for utility customers, estimates that $9 billion of the $11.6 billion plan will be allocated to residential rate payers. This could push utilities to seek rate increases for residents, according to Pennsylvania Consumer Advocate Darryl Lawrence.

Any proposed rate increases would have to go through the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, which regulates electric, water, natural gas, and other utilities.

Duquesne Light Company said that PJM’s transmission expansion plan is “linked to” DLC’s concerns about power availability.  

“While DLC customers would only bear a very small percentage of these specific costs, we remain vigilant about any pass-through charges from PJM that add to our customers' electric bills,” Alyssa Battaglia, external communications associate, said in a prepared statement.

In a testimony prepared for the Pennsylvania House Energy Committee and House Consumer Protection, Technology & Utilities Committee, Stephen DeFrank, chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, proposed a regulatory model to protect rate payers from shouldering the cost of infrastructure built to serve large load customers, including data centers.

“Customers who do not benefit from these upgrades should not be on the hook for their costs,” he wrote.

But Rob Gramlich, president of Grid Strategies LLC, a Washington D.C.-based power consultancy, said the transmission upgrades might not increase utility bills.  

“Transmission can reduce the total delivered cost of electricity,” he said.  

Annual transmission investments have risen substantially across the country since the mid-1990s, according to a 2024 report by Grid Strategies with support from Americans for a Clean Energy Grid, an organization that advocates for investing in the transmission grid.

To Gramlich, the purpose of PJM's $11.6 billion plan is to, “catch up and get back on track.”

How the plans will play out is already taking shape. The timeline for the work was not immediately clear. For more details, see this update from PJM.

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Hannah Frances Johansson is a reporter for the Pittsburgh Media Partnership newsroom. She holds a master's degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She is a 2025 recipient of the Overseas Press Club Scholar Award and a former 11^th Hour Food and Farming Fellow. Her reporting has appeared on CNN, Pittsburgh's Public Source, and Michigan Public Radio, among others. She resides in the city’s North Side. Reach her at hannah.johansson@pointpark.edu

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Header image: Transmission lines shown in Troy Hill neighborhood on Jan. 27, 2026. Grid operator PJM is proposing a large package of electric transmission upgrades. Photo by Hannah Frances Johansson.