Lawmakers in Maine have passed what would be the nation’s first statewide moratorium on large data centers, moving to halt new development, though regional grid officials say New England has yet to see the surge in projects emerging elsewhere.
The legislation, approved April 14, would prohibit state and local agencies from authorizing data centers with loads of 20 MW or more until Nov. 1, 2027, while a newly created Maine Data Center Coordinating Council assesses impacts on power grid capacity, ratepayers and environmental resources.
The council is also tasked with evaluating freight growth projections, infrastructure needs and strategies to “protect ratepayers from rate inflation or negative financial effects” tied to bulk freight development.
Gov. Janet Mills (D) had previously said she wanted an exemption for a proposed data center redevelopment in Jay, a rural town where developers are seeking to convert a shuttered paper mill site, to win her support, but her office has not said publicly whether she will sign or veto the measure.
As U.S. policymakers weigh how to manage the rapid expansion of energy-intensive computing tied to artificial intelligence, large-scale data center development in New England remains limited.
“So far, New England has not seen the level of interest in large data centers that other parts of the country have, and therefore we do not expect the rapid growth in demand that other network operators are projecting,” Mary Cate Colapietro, senior communications specialist at ISO New England, told ENR.
New England ISO data indicates only a small portfolio of potential high-load projects. Surveys of transmission owners show “several hundred megawatts of large loads in the formal study phase,” according to a March 2026 ISO filing.
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Colapietro said one project identified through those surveys has an estimated capacity of about 200 MW, although ISO New England did not identify its location in the materials it provided.
The bill’s financial risk provisions have significant implications for developers and utilities operating in the region. The legislation directs the council to assess “electric load growth projections, infrastructure needs and system reliability” and consider cost allocation approaches, rate design changes, impact rates, energy supply obligations and requirements for demand response or load flexibility during periods of high demand or grid emergencies.
It also asks for recommendations on what data center developers should disclose to grid operators, utilities, agencies and municipalities about electrical load, peak demand, water use and other operational characteristics.
That framework would require prospective developers and utilities to evaluate not only whether the projects can be allowed, but also what operating, disclosure and cost obligations Maine can attach to them.
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Network pressures already under construction
Regional planning data shows demand pressures are already building even without significant data center expansion. ISO New England predicts that electricity use will increase by 11% between 2025 and 2034, driven largely by the electrification of heating and transportation.
During the same period, peak demand is expected to increase from about 24,800 MW to nearly 26,900 MW in summer and from about 20,000 MW to about 26,000 MW in winter as electrification reshapes load patterns.
Nationally, analysts expect data centers to account for a significant portion of future load growth. A 2025 analysis by Grid Strategies found that these installations could account for about 55% of the projected growth in US electricity demand over the next five years. The divergence between rapid national growth and limited regional activity has created a planning dilemma for states like Maine, which are weighing economic development opportunities against the risk of future infrastructure strain.
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A mill town in balance
That tension is especially visible in Jay, where local officials support a proposed redevelopment of the former Androscoggin mill, the Pixelle Specialty Solutions paper plant that closed in 2023, three years after a digester explosion crippled its pulp-making operations. JGT2 Redevelopment LLC, which bought the property in December 2023, is seeking a $550 million co-location data center there for Sentinel Data Centers LLC of New York City.
Tony McDonald, a developer representing JGT2 Redevelopment, told Jay officials in March that the project draws no more than 25 MW from Central Maine Power on days its planned solar system does not produce, and that the developers believe the site’s existing electrical infrastructure can handle that load without changes to the regional grid.
At the reported load level, Jay’s proposal would exceed the bill’s 20 MW threshold and be dragged into the moratorium without a split. He also said the project could employ 800 to 1,000 workers during construction, support 125 to 150 permanent jobs and expand the city’s tax base.
Kenneth Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, disagrees with state and local officials adopting blanket moratoriums on data center development.
“Data center construction brings a large number of high-paying jobs to a region and generates even more indirect and induced employment,” he said in an April 16 email. A December 2025 analysis by Vista Site Selection found that building a hypothetical 250,000-square-foot data center in Ohio would support 9,691 jobs, with a multiplier of 2.27, and provide $2.4 billion in economic output while adding $1 billion to the state’s GDP.
Democratic Rep. Melanie Sachs, a sponsor of the bill, said the temporary pause is needed to define how future projects should be located and what obligations developers would have to assume before market scale. In an April 14 statement after final approval, he said the bill would position Maine “to respond deliberately and responsibly to a rapidly evolving industry” whose projects “could have significant impacts on ratepayers,” the power grid and the environment.
“These data centers … have impacts for network resiliency [and] environmental resources, so we just wanted to take a proactive approach and do it unlike any other state to date,” Sachs said in an interview with Maine Public.
Meanwhile, ISO New England officials said they are preparing for the possibility of future heavy-duty growth, even if current activity remains limited.
“Given the potential for the development of large loads, the ISO is actively working to incorporate a forecast of this type of development into our next CELT 2026 report,” said Colapietro, referring to the network operator’s ten-year planning forecast for demand, capacity and transmission needs.
If Mills signs the measure, Maine would become an early test case for how states manage emerging, high-burden infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence, not after a wave of projects has arrived, but while the rules about who pays, who benefits and who bears the risk are still being drafted.
