HARRISBURG, Pa. — Industrial electricity use in PPL Electric Utilities’ service territory is projected to grow an average of 51.05% a year through 2030 — nearly triple the statewide industrial rate — under the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission’s annual Electric Power Outlook, released Sept. 1.
Statewide, the PUC projects industrial usage rising an average of 18.56% annually through 2030, against 0.52% for residential customers and 0.32% for commercial. It attributes the industrial jump primarily to anticipated large-load customers, particularly data centers.
PPL Electric, headquartered in Allentown, delivers electricity to about 1.5 million customers across a 10,000-square-mile territory in 29 counties of eastern and central Pennsylvania. The PUC says total electricity use in its territory is forecast to grow 20.51% a year through 2030, and that the industrial increase there is “almost entirely attributable to anticipated large data centers.”
Pennsylvania’s total electricity consumption fell 0.24% in 2025 compared with 2024, even as the customer count grew about 0.4%.
“Pennsylvania’s electricity needs have been relatively stable for years, but large new loads have the potential to fundamentally change that picture,” PUC Chairman Steve DeFrank said in the commission’s announcement. “We need a clear picture of what demand is actually coming.”
The PUC posted the release under a correction notice on revised forecast percentages. The commission stresses these are forecasts, not guarantees, and says PPL’s projected growth does not by itself indicate a capacity shortfall in its territory or the wider PJM region.
The forecast does not reflect what PPL is selling now. The company’s first-quarter 2026 investor update put weather-normalized Pennsylvania sales down 0.2% year over year for the three months ended March 31, with industrial sales down 2.5% and residential down 0.3%.
In its second-quarter earnings release Aug. 7, PPL Corp. put its Pennsylvania data center pipeline in advanced planning at 31.8 gigawatts, with more than 11 GW under signed electric service agreements and more than 6.5 GW under construction — up from 28.3 GW three months earlier and what WFMZ counted as the 10th straight quarterly increase.
Invitium Energy, PPL’s 51% joint venture with Blackstone Infrastructure, has secured land able to support 8 to 14 GW of new generation and reservation agreements for more than 5 GW of gas turbines, and PJM has accepted more than 5 GW of its interconnection requests — by PPL’s estimate, $12.5 billion to $15 billion in potential investment through 2032. PPL says the venture will not build or commit money until it signs energy supply or cost reimbursement agreements, and that PPL Electric customers are not funding it.
Who pays is the live fight. The PUC’s final order in docket M-2025-3054271, issued May 13, applies a model tariff to customers above 50 megawatts individually or 100 megawatts in the aggregate, requires deposits and collateral against projects that are delayed or abandoned, sets a six-month expectation for interconnection studies and tells utilities to post their large-load queues publicly. It is guidance for future tariff filings, not binding regulation.
Elizabeth Marx, executive director of the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project, told WHYY that legislation is needed because the tariff is not binding, and that Pennsylvanians are “already paying in the neighborhood of a billion dollars more this year in generation costs” tied to data center load growth. Utility shutoffs in Pennsylvania rose 21% last year, WHYY reported.
PPL says the tariff it obtained through its rate settlement ensures large-load customers fund the infrastructure serving them.
DeFrank said in the announcement that the costs of major new loads should be “appropriately addressed rather than simply shifted to existing families and businesses.”
The transmission bill is already moving. PJM’s 2025 regional plan identified about $3.56 billion in Pennsylvania transmission projects, against $1.64 billion the year before, the PUC said. The North American Electric Reliability Corp. projects PJM’s anticipated reserve margin could fall below its required margin in 2029. Pennsylvania’s generating capacity rose from 45,096 megawatts in 2024 to 45,733 in 2025, and no generator filed a deactivation notice last year.