Maryland: data centers & your electric bill
As of October 1, 2026, AI GridWatch tracks 21 data center moratoriums or pushback actions in Maryland: 18 in force, 3 proposed. The state has 48 tracked data center facilities using an estimated 0.9 TWh of electricity a year.
Everything GridWatch tracks in Maryland on one page — proposed projects, moratoriums, permits, officials, and the 2026 ballot.
Subscribe by RSS — moratorium changes and community headlines for Maryland.
As of July 2026 (3m ago) · changes over months · Source: U.S. Data Center Power Map by State — ElectricChoice.com compilation (updated July 2026; CC-BY 4.0). Underlying load research: LBNL 2024 US Data Center Energy Usage Report; rates: EIA
Facility counts vary by directory because each one draws the boundary differently — DataCenterMap lists 44 in Alabama where this table says 35, since it counts small network rooms alongside hyperscale campuses. Cite the TWh figure rather than the facility count when you can; it is the number that speaks to grid impact. Underlying load research is LBNL-2001637 (Dec 2024).
1Proposed data centers in Maryland (2)
1 still live · 1 decided or withdrawn. Each name links to the full dossier — ownership, intelligence log, and where to read the paper trail.
| Project | Where | Size | Behind it | Stage | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dickerson Data Center Campus (Atmosphere) | Dickerson (Montgomery County) | 110 ac | Atmosphere Data Centers | Awaiting decision | Source read 2026-08-14 |
| AWS Calvert Technology Center | Lusby (Calvert County) | — | Amazon (AWS) | Withdrawn | Source read 2026-08-07 |
2Pushback already happening in Maryland
| Where | Level | Status | Note | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baltimore City | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-06-16 | CB 26-0158: 1 year, facilities drawing 10 MW or more; 9-month impact study | SourceNews read 2026-08-04 |
| Prince George's County | Local | Enactedexpires 2028-07-07 | 2-year pause on hyperscale data centers — the longest in Maryland. Bars the planning department from considering applications until the council passes regulations. Three members abstained; one voted no | SourceNews read 2026-08-04 |
| Baltimore County | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-01-01 | 1-year, passed unanimously; runs no later than Jan 1, 2027. A 6-month extension was being introduced in Aug 2026 with a bipartisan majority and the county executive behind it | SourceNews read 2026-08-04 |
| Montgomery County | Local | Enactedexpires 2028-01-28 | 18-month moratorium approved unanimously, alongside limits on data center development | SourceOfficial read 2026-08-04 |
| Ridgely | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-08-31 | 1-year moratorium; part of an Eastern Shore wave of local action after a controversial Federalsburg data center proposal | SourceNews read 2026-08-13 |
| Harford County | Local | Enactedno end date — permanent | Permanent ban — first MD county to permanently ban data centers, unanimous. A single hyperscale facility could double the county's residential electricity demand. Legal challenges anticipated | SourceNews read 2026-08-13 |
| Howard County | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-11-02 | 17-month moratorium (S.M.A.R.T. Act), unanimous. Expires Nov 2 2027 or when zoning amendment passes. Task force of up to 11 appointees studying impacts. Existing zoning dates to 1993 | SourceNews read 2026-08-13 |
| Carroll County | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-02-19 | 12-month moratorium to study economic and environmental impacts and propose regulations | SourceNews read 2026-08-13 |
| Queen Anne's County | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-07-29 | 12-month moratorium, effective immediately. Part of the Eastern Shore moratorium wave after the Federalsburg data center proposal | SourceNews read 2026-08-13 |
| Caroline County | Local | Enactedfixed term, end date not recorded | 1-year moratorium in unincorporated areas. Part of the Eastern Shore moratorium wave | SourceNews read 2026-08-13 |
| Dorchester County | Local | Enactedfixed term, end date not recorded | 1-year moratorium. Part of the Eastern Shore moratorium cluster | SourceNews read 2026-08-13 |
| Talbot County | Local | Proposedterm not documented | 1-year moratorium resolution introduced; public comment hearing scheduled Sep 8. Not yet enacted | SourceNews read 2026-08-13 |
| Washington County | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-06-30 | 12-month pause on new data center applications, 4-1 (Parrott opposed). Staff to study infrastructure, water and utility impacts and modernize the zoning ordinance, which does not yet define data centers or say which districts may host them | SourceNews read 2026-08-23 |
| Calvert County | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-02-28 | Six-month pause on data center site plan applications, unanimous; effective Aug 28, 2026. No site plan applications are accepted during the pause while the commissioners consider whether to change the zoning ordinance's treatment of data centers as a permitted use. Follows Amazon's withdrawal from a build at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant | SourceOfficial read 2026-08-30 |
| Salisbury | Local | Proposedterm not documented | Planning Commission recommended 1-year moratorium on data center development (Aug 14, 2026); City Council vote pending. Mayor supports the pause. | SourceNews read 2026-09-06 |
| Chesapeake Beach | Local | Enactedno end date — permanent | Town Council voted 4-0 to pass ordinance prohibiting data centers in all zones. Calvert County waterfront municipality acted preemptively — no known developer interest. Concerns over environmental impact and tourism economy. | SourceNews read 2026-09-06 |
| Frederick County | County | Enactedexpires 2026-12-31 | County Executive signed executive order pausing new data center permitting through end of 2026, after Maryland Supreme Court rejected a 20,000-signature referendum petition. | SourceOfficial read 2026-09-11 |
| Worcester County | County | Enactedexpires 2027-07-21 | Resolution No. 26-18 placing a 12-month moratorium on permits for data centers and cable landing stations. | SourceOfficial read 2026-09-11 |
| Wicomico County | County | Enactedexpires 2027-08-06 | County Council unanimously imposed a 1-year moratorium on construction of data centers. | SourceNews read 2026-09-11 |
| Federalsburg | City | Enactedexpires 2029-08-04 | Town Council unanimously passed a 3-year moratorium on data center development (5-0); also introduced ordinance to ban data centers entirely. | SourceNews read 2026-09-11 |
| Somerset County | County | Proposedterm not documented | One-year moratorium on data center siting recommended to county commissioners; outcome not confirmed. | SourceNews read 2026-09-11 |
As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing
Illustrative rather than exhaustive — dozens of localities churn weekly, and this tracks the ones we have read a source for. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to the ordinance, the enacting body's own page, or a datable report of the vote, and were read on that date. Rows marked *unverified* came from bulk compilation and have not been checked against a primary source — the locality, the year, and the status may all be off. Verify one of those with the town clerk before citing it as precedent. **Expiry is derived, not asserted.** A row with a documented end date flips to *Expired* on its own once that date passes. A time-limited moratorium whose start date was never documented keeps showing as enacted — that is a known gap, not a claim that it is still in force. Moratoriums are also routinely extended, so an expiry date is the earliest it could have ended, not proof that it did.
3Every data center already built in Maryland
GridWatch does not yet track a named hyperscale campus in Maryland, but that does not mean the state has none. DataCenterMap keeps a public directory of existing facilities — street addresses included — for Maryland.
Browse the Maryland directory →
Two caveats before you cite it at a hearing: it lists facilities that already exist, so a newly proposed campus will not appear; and it counts a small network room the same as a hyperscale campus, so the facility count is not a measure of power draw or community impact.
4What Maryland's own study found
Critical Infrastructure Streamlining Act of 2024 & State Data Center Impact Mandate (2024)
Maryland General Assembly (CISA / SB 116)
Legislative response to utility generator permit denials and creation of state-wide environmental impact study.
- Backup Generator Controversy: Aligned Data Centers canceled a massive $30B project in late 2023 after the Maryland PSC denied a permit for 168 diesel backup generators due to air quality emissions thresholds.
- Regulatory Streamlining (CISA): In May 2024, Maryland enacted the Critical Infrastructure Streamlining Act to exempt data center backup power from Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) reviews to attract investment.
- Environmental Safeguards: Environmental groups expressed concern over local particulate and carbon emissions from diesel backup arrays, prompting the state to commission a comprehensive data center impact study due September 1, 2026.
Read the report · read 2026-08-13
5Your regulator
Maryland Public Service Commission — website · file a complaint
Official state energy data: EIA Maryland electricity profile — generation, prices, and consumption from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
6Where the Maryland paper trail lives
Air & environmental permits: Maryland Dept. of the Environment
No searchable register. Maryland does not publish a permit database you can query. A public-records request to the agency is the only route to the file.
Grid interconnection queue: PJM Interconnection (Mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley)
A routing hint only — several states are split between markets, and the serving utility is the only authority on which queue a given site is in.
These are places to look, not evidence that anything has been filed. Links were checked on 2026-08-21; search links are queries, not records.
7Your federal delegation and governor
Grades cross party — this is an issue axis, not a partisan one. A blank grade means no documented action was located, never that the official is neutral.
| Grade | Official | Documented action (sourced) | Reach them |
|---|---|---|---|
| — | Wes Moore Democratic · Governor | No documented action on data centers located | site · contact |
| A | Angela D. Alsobrooks Democratic · Senator · next on the ballot 2030 | Cosponsored the Power for the People Act, making data-center operators pay the grid costs they create. — Sen. Welch joins bill so Americans aren't footing big data-center costs (2026) Guardrails Alsobrooks joined the Maryland delegation's July 2026 letter urging FERC to relieve Maryland ratepayers of transmission costs driven by out-of-state data centers. sources | site · contact |
| A | Chris Van Hollen Democratic · Senator · next on the ballot 2028 | Co-led the Power for the People Act with Welch: data-center operators pay the infrastructure and energy costs they create instead of ratepayers. — Sen. Welch joins bill so Americans aren't footing big data-center costs (2026) Guardrails Beyond the Power for the People Act, Van Hollen co-led the Warren investigation into Big Tech data center costs, a NARUC letter on ratepayer protection, a probe of gas-powered data center plans, and the Maryland delegation's FERC letter. sources | site · contact |
| — | Andy Harris Republican · Representative 1 | No documented action on data centers located | site · contact |
| — | Johnny Olszewski, Jr. Democratic · Representative 2 | No documented action on data centers located | site · contact |
| — | Sarah Elfreth Democratic · Representative 3 | No documented action on data centers located | site · contact |
| — | Glenn Ivey Democratic · Representative 4 | No documented action on data centers located | site · contact |
| — | Steny H. Hoyer Democratic · Representative 5 | No documented action on data centers located | site · contact |
| — | April McClain Delaney Democratic · Representative 6 | No documented action on data centers located | site · contact |
| — | Kweisi Mfume Democratic · Representative 7 | No documented action on data centers located | site · contact |
| — | Jamie Raskin Democratic · Representative 8 | No documented action on data centers located | site · contact |
Roster: regenerated by scripts/refresh_officials.py (Senate XML + congress-legislators + current governors).
Write to your senators → Your senators in detail → Full officials scorecard → Find your state legislators →
82026 U.S. Senate
Neither Maryland Senate seat is on the 2026 ballot. Your senators are still the people who vote on federal siting and tax policy — their records are in the delegation table above.
92026 U.S. House races in Maryland (8)
A documented data-center record exists in 7 of 8 districts. A candidate with no badge colour has said nothing we could locate — that is a gap in the record, not a neutral position. ★ marks an incumbent.
| District | PVI | Incumbent | Candidates |
|---|---|---|---|
| MD-1 | R+8 | Andy Harris | Andy Harris ★ Dan Schwartz |
| MD-2 | D+10 | Johnny Olszewski | Johnny Olszewski ★ Dave Wallace |
| MD-3 | D+12 | Sarah Elfreth | Sarah Elfreth ★ Berney Flowers |
| MD-4 | D+39 | Glenn Ivey | Glenn Ivey ★ George McDermott Sam Husseini |
| MD-5 | D+17 | Steny Hoyer | Adrian Boafo Chris Chaffee Brian Jordan |
| MD-6 | D+3 | April McClain Delaney | April McClain Delaney ★ Robin Ficker Moshe Landman |
| MD-7 | D+31 | Kweisi Mfume | Kweisi Mfume ★ Scott Collier |
| MD-8 | D+30 | Jamie Raskin | Jamie Raskin ★ Cheryl Riley Nancy Wallace |
The documented records (7 districts)
MD-1
Andy Harris (Republican) · incumbent Mixed
Argues data centers should generate their own power rather than passing costs to consumers; part of Maryland Freedom Caucus energy platform but did not join Democratic delegation's FERC letter.
- Argued alongside Maryland Freedom Caucus that data centers should generate their own power, not pass infrastructure costs to consumers; part of 'Lower Electric Bills Now' platform. (2026-02-25 — source)
- Voted yes on H.R. 9340, the Ratepayer Protection Act, which passed 417-3 (roll call 312). It directs state utility commissions to consider rate designs making data centers with 100 MW or more of peak demand at one site pay the full incremental cost of the generation and grid upgrades they require. A near-unanimous vote: shown on the record, not scored on its own. (2026-09-16 — source)
Record read 2026-09-11.
MD-2
Johnny Olszewski (Democratic) · incumbent Guardrails
Co-signed Maryland Democratic delegation letter to FERC demanding data-center-driven transmission costs not be passed to Maryland ratepayers.
- Co-signed Maryland Congressional delegation letter to FERC urging revision of PJM cost-allocation rules so Maryland consumers do not finance $2B in infrastructure built primarily for out-of-state data centers. (2026-07-28 — source)
- Voted yes on H.R. 9340, the Ratepayer Protection Act, which passed 417-3 (roll call 312). It directs state utility commissions to consider rate designs making data centers with 100 MW or more of peak demand at one site pay the full incremental cost of the generation and grid upgrades they require. A near-unanimous vote: shown on the record, not scored on its own. (2026-09-16 — source)
Record read 2026-09-11.
MD-3
Sarah Elfreth (Democratic) · incumbent Guardrails
Co-signed Maryland Democratic delegation letter to FERC demanding data-center-driven transmission costs not be passed to Maryland ratepayers.
- Co-signed Maryland Congressional delegation letter to FERC urging revision of PJM cost-allocation rules so Maryland consumers do not finance $2B in infrastructure built primarily for out-of-state data centers. (2026-07-28 — source)
- Voted yes on H.R. 9340, the Ratepayer Protection Act, which passed 417-3 (roll call 312). It directs state utility commissions to consider rate designs making data centers with 100 MW or more of peak demand at one site pay the full incremental cost of the generation and grid upgrades they require. A near-unanimous vote: shown on the record, not scored on its own. (2026-09-16 — source)
Record read 2026-09-11.
MD-4
Glenn Ivey (Democratic) · incumbent Guardrails
Co-signed Maryland Democratic delegation letter to FERC demanding data-center-driven transmission costs not be passed to Maryland ratepayers.
- Co-signed Maryland Congressional delegation letter to FERC urging revision of PJM cost-allocation rules so Maryland consumers do not finance $2B in infrastructure built primarily for out-of-state data centers. (2026-07-28 — source)
- Voted yes on H.R. 9340, the Ratepayer Protection Act, which passed 417-3 (roll call 312). It directs state utility commissions to consider rate designs making data centers with 100 MW or more of peak demand at one site pay the full incremental cost of the generation and grid upgrades they require. A near-unanimous vote: shown on the record, not scored on its own. (2026-09-16 — source)
Record read 2026-09-11.
MD-6
April McClain Delaney (Democratic) · incumbent Guardrails
Led Maryland Democratic delegation letter to FERC demanding data-center-driven transmission costs not be passed to Maryland ratepayers.
- Led and issued press release for Maryland Congressional delegation letter to FERC urging revision of PJM cost-allocation rules so Maryland consumers do not finance $2B in infrastructure built primarily for out-of-state data centers. (2026-07-28 — source)
- Voted yes on H.R. 9340, the Ratepayer Protection Act, which passed 417-3 (roll call 312). It directs state utility commissions to consider rate designs making data centers with 100 MW or more of peak demand at one site pay the full incremental cost of the generation and grid upgrades they require. A near-unanimous vote: shown on the record, not scored on its own. (2026-09-16 — source)
Record read 2026-09-11.
MD-7
Kweisi Mfume (Democratic) · incumbent Guardrails
Introduced the House Power for the People Act, aimed at stopping data-center demand from raising household energy bills.
- Introduced H.R. 8241, the Power for the People Act of 2026, with Rep. Paul Tonko — the House companion to S.3682, which directs states to consider data-center rate classes and seeks a FERC rule making data centers pay for the transmission upgrades they require. (2026 — source)
- Co-signed Maryland Congressional delegation letter to FERC urging revision of PJM cost-allocation rules so Maryland consumers do not finance $2B in infrastructure built primarily for out-of-state data centers. (2026-07-28 — source)
- Voted yes on H.R. 9340, the Ratepayer Protection Act, which passed 417-3 (roll call 312). It directs state utility commissions to consider rate designs making data centers with 100 MW or more of peak demand at one site pay the full incremental cost of the generation and grid upgrades they require. A near-unanimous vote: shown on the record, not scored on its own. (2026-09-16 — source)
Record read 2026-09-11.
MD-8
Jamie Raskin (Democratic) · incumbent Guardrails
Co-signed Maryland Democratic delegation letter to FERC demanding data-center-driven transmission costs not be passed to Maryland ratepayers.
- Co-signed Maryland Congressional delegation letter to FERC urging revision of PJM cost-allocation rules so Maryland consumers do not finance $2B in infrastructure built primarily for out-of-state data centers. (2026-07-28 — source)
- Voted yes on H.R. 9340, the Ratepayer Protection Act, which passed 417-3 (roll call 312). It directs state utility commissions to consider rate designs making data centers with 100 MW or more of peak demand at one site pay the full incremental cost of the generation and grid upgrades they require. A near-unanimous vote: shown on the record, not scored on its own. (2026-09-16 — source)
Record read 2026-09-11.
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