PJM Executive Vice President Asim Haque came to the Senate Energy Committee on Tuesday warning of “historic load growth” and pushing lawmakers toward more market intervention, more infrastructure spending and, ultimately, higher costs for customers.

The Ohio Manufacturers’ Association (OMA) said the issue is not whether some new load is coming. It is whether grid insiders are turning speculation into system planning and handing customers the bill.

PJM’s own presentation made the point. The grid operator said it now plans to require demonstrated financial commitment for near-term large loads, identify duplicative requests, add third-party review and give state regulators a chance to weigh in before those projections are folded into the forecast. That is not a sign the old process was sound. It is an admission it was not.

OMA’s February analysis showed why that matters. The report found AEP Ohio’s data center tariff could inflate PJM large-load forecasts by more than 40% per data center, helping turn speculation into system planning. It also cited PJM’s Independent Market Monitor, which found forecasts of unbuilt data centers drove $21.3 billion in capacity costs over three years, compared with just $1.8 billion tied to built data centers.

“Ohio manufacturers have heard this script before: big claims, big urgency and then a bigger bill,” said Ryan Augsburger, president of OMA. “If Asim Haque wants lawmakers to treat this as a historic crisis, he ought to welcome historic scrutiny. Forecasts are not demand, and Ohio customers should not be forced to finance billion-dollar grid buildouts based on speculative, inflated or duplicate load projections.” 3/24/2026