Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC), providing power for 1.2 million people in Maryland, Virginia and Delaware, is negotiating for gas supply for a planned 1,000 MW natural gas-fired baseload plant near the Susquehanna River at the head of Chesapeake Bay.

ODEC has been working with the Cecil County government and expects to file this month for a certificate from the Maryland Public Service Commission for a state-of-the-art plant it hopes to have operational in 2017. ODEC provides power for 11 locally owned and controlled power distribution cooperatives in the three-state area and is on the PJM grid.

The new Wildcat Point Generation Facility would be located on the existing property of the nearly 700 MW natural gas-fired Rock Springs Generation Facility, used for peaking, near the town of Rising Sun, MD, not far from where the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware meet.

“We are currently reviewing a number of possibilities for the acquisition and delivery of natural gas, but no final decisions have been made. Once those details have been finalized they will be made available,” said ODEC COO Lisa Johnson.

“Even after factoring in our members’ well-established load control and energy efficiency programs, demand for electricity in ODEC-served areas continues to grow,” said ODEC CEO Jackson E. Reasor. The coop has had a planned $6 billion coal-fired power project, the Cypress Power Project in Virginia, on hold since 2010, suspended based on economics and environmental opposition. Maryland’s power plant fleet is aging and unable to meet statewide needs, ODEC said.

Maryland imports 42% of its power, making it the fifth largest energy importing state in the United States.

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