DE — Power Infrastructure Updated 2026-07-17

Delaware

PJM Storage Data Center PPAs Queue Bottlenecks Transmission Constraints

1. Grid operator and market structure

  • Grid operator / balancing authority: Delaware is within the PJM Interconnection footprint; PJM coordinates transmission across all or parts of Delaware, 12 other states, and Washington, D.C. (PJM, accessed 2026-07-17).
  • Market structure: Delaware has a restructured retail electricity market for supply. Electric choice began in 1999, customers can choose a third-party supplier for supply, and Delmarva Power remains the distribution utility in its service territory (Delaware PSC, accessed 2026-07-17).

2. Interconnection queue status (PJM region)

  • PJM queue reforms: PJM reported its interconnection transition queue had been reduced to approximately 63 GW as of June 2025, with remaining transition projects to be processed in 2025-2026, and PJM described an expected one- to two-year turnaround for new interconnection agreements under the reformed process (PJM, 2025-06; PJM Inside Lines, 2026-01-26).
  • Cycle 1 timing: The first application deadline under PJM’s new interconnection process was April 27, 2026, so the early-February “upcoming deadline” language is now stale (American Public Power Association, 2025-08-31).
  • Federal interconnection reform context: FERC Order No. 2023 and Order No. 2023-A remain the federal backdrop for generation interconnection cluster studies, deadlines, and penalties (FERC, accessed 2026-07-17; FERC, accessed 2026-07-17).
  • Regional large-load integration work: PJM stakeholders began work in February 2026 on a Board plan for reliable integration of large loads, including the data-center-driven loads now central to Delaware’s legislative and PSC proceedings (PJM Inside Lines, 2026-02-25).
  • Expedited generation interconnection: FERC accepted PJM’s Expedited Interconnection Track on June 9, effective July 31, 2026. The two-year mechanism can advance up to 20 state-supported, shovel-ready generation projects; it is a supply-side response to rapid load growth, not a Delaware large-load service tariff or a guarantee that a Delaware data center can connect (FERC Commissioner Rosner concurrence, 2026-06-09; FERC order in ER26-1563, 2026-06-09).
  • Federal large-load proceeding: On June 18, FERC issued show-cause orders to PJM and the other five jurisdictional RTOs/ISOs concerning large-load integration, cost shifting, and co-location. PJM’s response was still pending at the July 17 cutoff, so the proceeding had not yet produced a replacement regional large-load rule (FERC, 2026-06-18).
  • Delaware-specific interconnection pause: Delaware PSC Docket No. 25-0826 paused interconnection of new large-load facilities in Delmarva Power & Light territory while a large-load tariff is developed; the PSC notice identifies 25 MW or more as a large-load facility and cites Project Washington’s proposed 1,200 MW load as almost half of Delaware’s roughly 2,700 MW summer peak (Delaware PSC, 2025-10-14).
  • Delaware-specific large-load requests: Utility records disclosed a 1,200 MW New Castle County request under review, 300 MW New Castle County and 100 MW Kent County requests awaiting cluster studies, an early-stage New Castle County inquiry with no stated size, and a withdrawn 30 MW New Castle County request. The records did not confirm the project names, so reported matches to Project Washington, St. Georges, Harrington, and White Clay remain hypotheses rather than verified queue assignments (Technical.ly, 2026-06-11).

3. Ratepayer protection mechanisms (Delaware PSC and 2026 bills)

  • Large-load tariff docket: Docket No. 25-0826 remains Delaware’s main ratepayer-protection proceeding for data centers and other large loads. The PSC opened the docket to prevent large-load facilities from shifting transmission, substation, distribution, and reliability costs onto existing ratepayers, and the interconnection pause remains the key near-term gate in Delmarva territory (Delaware PSC, 2025-10-14).
  • April 2026 agency comments and current status: On April 9, 2026, the Division of the Public Advocate said DPA, DNREC, and PSC Staff jointly commented on Delmarva’s proposed large-load tariff, warning of risks to Delaware customers and urging alignment with PJM, federal, and state developments before final tariff decisions (Delaware Public Advocate, 2026-04-09). The PSC archive showed no final tariff order by July 17, so the docket and interconnection pause remained open (Delaware PSC large-load tariff archive, accessed 2026-07-17).
  • HS 1 for HB 233: The bill passed both chambers on July 1 and awaited the Governor as of July 17. Its final text would require project-specific Electric Service and Transmission Security Agreements; create a separate large-energy-use rate class; impose minimum-payment, security, curtailment, forecast, and advance-termination obligations; and directly assign facility-caused distribution, capacity, transmission, study, and reliability-backstop costs to the project or class. PSC regulations would precede utility rate filings, so even enactment would not itself constitute the final Delmarva tariff (Delaware General Assembly HS 1 for HB 233, 2026-07-01; Delaware General Assembly engrossed HB 233, 2026-07-01).
  • SB 276: The Governor signed SB 276 on June 10. The law now allows an electric cooperative to decline electric supply service to a user whose projected monthly demand exceeds 50 MW (Delaware General Assembly SB 276, 2026-06-10; Governor Matt Meyer legislative advisory, 2026-06-11).

4. Generation adequacy and major projects

  • Reliability-driven southern Delaware transmission upgrades: PJM reported that Delmarva Power completed the Vienna-Nelson line upgrade, the last required transmission upgrade needed to allow NRG’s Indian River Unit 4 to retire early and terminate its Reliability Must-Run arrangement (PJM Inside Lines, 2024-12-30; American Public Power Association, 2025-01-02).
  • Project Washington energy scale and status: Project Washington’s proposed 1.2 GW demand remains the main Delaware data-center load benchmark, but its status changed materially after early February. DNREC determined on February 3, 2026 that the proposal was prohibited in the Coastal Zone, and the Coastal Zone Industrial Control Board affirmed on April 17, 2026; the final order describes a 579-acre, 11-building campus with 1.2 GW total demand, 504 3-MW generators, 12 1.5-MW generators, and 516 fuel tanks (DNREC Status Decision, 2026-02-03; Coastal Zone Industrial Control Board, 2026-04-17).
  • White Clay status: The 847,450-square-foot White Clay plan remained on New Castle County’s active-plan list, but a June 10 nonbinding understanding paused the data-center proposal while the developer explores other uses. The owner retained the ability to proceed, and no verified MW value or utility milestone was public by July 17 (New Castle County Active Plans, accessed 2026-07-17; Spotlight Delaware, 2026-07-02, updated 2026-07-06).
  • Planned data-center load beyond Project Washington: Delaware Public Media reported in June 2026 that the Delaware Sierra Club identified six planned data centers totaling 2.1 GW, while Spotlight Delaware reported that five New Castle County data-center proposals could double statewide electricity usage; these are secondary-source estimates and still need project-level utility verification (Delaware Public Media, 2026-06-05; Spotlight Delaware, 2026-06-08).
  • Renewable interconnection facilities: Delaware requires a certificate of public convenience and necessity for a renewable energy interconnection facility, defined as transmission facilities connecting a renewable project of at least 30 MW to PJM, but I did not identify a PSC-filed Delaware data-center renewable co-location project by July 17, 2026 (Delaware PSC, accessed 2026-07-17).
  • Battery storage / new generation projects: I did not locate an accessible PSC-maintained list of large Delaware generation or storage projects with sizes and statuses tied to data-center service. Delaware-specific details likely require DelaFile docket review and PJM queue downloads.

5. Utility load forecasts and IRP filings

  • IRP requirement: Delmarva Power must file an Integrated Resource Plan every two years under Delaware’s IRP rules (26 Del. Admin. Code § 3010, accessed 2026-07-17).
  • Publicly linked IRP materials: The Delaware PSC’s Electric Regulation page still links Delmarva’s 2016 IRP in the static public page; more recent IRPs, if available, require DelaFile retrieval rather than relying on the PSC landing page alone (Delaware PSC, accessed 2026-07-17).
  • SB 308 load-forecast oversight: The Load Forecast Accountability Act passed both chambers on June 23 and awaited the Governor as of July 17. It would give the PSC oversight of regulated utilities’ PJM load-forecast inputs, access to relevant confidential agreements, coordination authority, and an annual public report due May 1 (Delaware General Assembly SB 308, 2026-06-23).
  • Independent policy analysis: An April 2026 Widener Delaware Law School policy analysis emphasizes that rapid large-load data-center growth creates special risks in Delaware because the state is import-reliant and participates in PJM, limiting Delaware’s independent control over regional rates and reliability outcomes (Widener Delaware Law School, 2026-04-14).

6. Behind-the-meter / co-location / direct PPAs

  • Correct federal co-location context: Order No. 2023 governs generator interconnection reform; it is not itself a blanket rule requiring PJM to approve data-center co-location behind existing generators. FERC separately issued PJM co-location orders in December 2025 and accepted PJM’s compliance filing on April 16, 2026, while the June 18 show-cause proceeding opened broader questions about large-load integration and cost allocation (FERC PJM docket index, entries dated 2026-04-16 and 2026-06-18; FERC, 2026-06-18).
  • Delaware-specific BTM/co-location evidence: A review of the PSC’s public electric-regulation, renewable-interconnection, and large-load pages did not identify a Delaware PSC approval for a behind-the-meter data-center generation project, co-located load arrangement, or direct generator PPA by July 17, 2026 (Delaware PSC electric regulation, accessed 2026-07-17; Delaware PSC renewable interconnection, accessed 2026-07-17; Delaware PSC large-load tariff archive, accessed 2026-07-17).
  • HB 445 supply proposal: HB 445 passed both chambers on July 1 and awaited the Governor. Its final text would require a large energy use facility to produce or procure 100% of annual consumption from new or previously uncommitted generation in the Delmarva Power zone or a land-contiguous PJM zone with sufficient transmission. The supply must meet the Delaware renewable-portfolio minimum, and qualifying clean technology may include nuclear energy and storage; a 10-year ramp is available with curtailment, bonding, and pre-service generation and backup milestones (Delaware General Assembly HB 445, 2026-07-01; Delaware General Assembly engrossed HB 445, 2026-07-01).
  • HB 233 curtailment and cost responsibility: The final HS 1 for HB 233 would subject covered facilities to curtailment and long-term payment/security requirements and allocate facility-caused grid costs to the project or large-load class. A facility that causes qualifying matching new generation to be built could be exempt from specified curtailment-sequencing rules, but it would remain subject to the ESA/TSA and cost-responsibility framework (Delaware General Assembly engrossed HB 233, 2026-07-01).

7. Transmission constraints and upgrades relevant to data centers

  • Existing reliability upgrades: The Vienna-Nelson upgrade tied to Indian River 4 retirement shows that Delaware/Delmarva reliability needs can require targeted transmission upgrades before generation changes proceed (PJM Inside Lines, 2024-12-30).
  • Data-center-driven infrastructure concerns: Delaware PSC and DPA have identified potential major transmission, substation, distribution, capacity, and reliability costs from large data-center loads, especially Project Washington-scale loads; the final HS 1 for HB 233 would require these costs to be directly assigned where possible or allocated to a large energy use class rather than other customers, but awaited the Governor as of July 17 (Delaware PSC, 2025-10-14; Delaware General Assembly HS 1 for HB 233, 2026-07-01).
  • Wholesale-price study: Spotlight Delaware reported that a Siemens Energy analysis completed for the State of Delaware found that doubling Delaware energy demand by 2029 could raise average wholesale electricity prices in the state by more than 80%, with southern Delaware especially exposed to congestion-related locational marginal price effects despite having no data-center proposals in that area (Spotlight Delaware, 2026-04-24).
  • Latest capacity-market signal: PJM’s July 14 auction for the 2028/2029 delivery year procured 138,318 MW of unforced capacity and demand response at the $325/MW-day FERC-approved price cap; with Fixed Resource Requirement commitments, total capacity was still 6,831 MW below the reliability requirement. This is a regional adequacy and price signal rather than a Delaware-project cost allocation, but it strengthens the relevance of Delaware’s load-forecast and large-load protections (PJM, 2026-07-14; PJM 2028/2029 Base Residual Auction materials, 2026-07-14).
  • Regional transmission planning: Delaware remains within PJM’s Regional Transmission Expansion Planning process, so project-level transmission upgrades should be checked against PJM RTEP, Delmarva/PSC dockets, and PJM service-request materials (PJM, accessed 2026-07-17).
  • Docket No. 25-0826 final order: Read any written PSC order and final approved Delmarva large-load tariff once issued.
  • Delaware-specific PJM service requests: Pull PJM queue/download data and map requests to Project Washington, White Clay, and any other New Castle County data-center proposals.
  • Latest Delmarva IRPs: Retrieve post-2016 IRP filings from DelaFile to verify load forecast treatment of data centers.
  • Project-specific energy-service agreements: Track whether Project Washington, White Clay, or other proposals submit ESAs/TSAs, new-generation plans, or revised interconnection requests if HB 233 or HB 445 is signed.
  • Federal large-load rules: Track PJM’s response and any FERC order in the June 18 show-cause proceeding, plus implementation of PJM’s Expedited Interconnection Track after July 31.