By Kennedy Maize
Baltimore-based Constellation Energy is dueling in Annapolis with its estranged, erstwhile parent, Chicago-based Exelon Corp., over building new electric generation and storage in the “land of pleasant living,” (a slogan coined in the 1960s by a Baltimore brewery).
The two energy giants are wrangling over the possibility of new generation needed in the state. In May, the Maryland legislature passed the Next Generation Energy Act, which requires the state Public Service Commission to issue two solicitations for 800-MW of new generation and storage, the first early next year and the second early in 2007.
The commission on Sept. 30 opened the window for applications under the first solicitation, which closed on Oct. 31, with the prize an “expedited certificate of public convenience and necessity” (CPCN). The PSC said, “Within 60 days after the close of the
The Maryland procedure is also a move to possibly insulate the state from the woes of the PJM Interconnection as it faces an onslaught of energy-gobbling data centers, which have been driving up retail electric prices across the 13-state region.
Maryland is literally at the heart of PJM, which began in 1927. Electric utilities in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland got together to pool the power they produced so it could be sent out to their customers on the basis of least cost electricity getting sent to the home wires first, known today as “economic dispatch.”
Constellation sent the PSC a proposal for expansion of existing natural gas units at an existing power station, totaling 700 MW, plus 800 MW of battery storage at the same site. There’s a hitch to those gas projects, according to Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez. He told a Maryland Chamber of Commerce meeting last week (Nov. 18), “I was told that the gas interconnection — the extension of the gas to the site to enable these things — is something like $800 million.”
Constellation would have to get the gas from Baltimore Gas & Electric, the statewide electric and gas distribution utility. A BG&E spokesman said that his company “has not provided Constellation Energy or any other merchant generator an estimate for work related to proposals submitted under the Next Generation Energy Act. BGE is committed to working with merchant generators and other partners to solve the state of Maryland’s energy security challenges.”
Here’s the rub. BG&E is owned by Exelon, which is considering entering the Maryland new supply sweepstakes. Exelon is not a generator, having spun off all its extensive generating assets, including a large fleet of nuclear plants, to Constellation. There’s a historic irony here. Exelon acquired Constellation in 2012 in order to beef up its generating assets. When the rules of the electricity road changed, forcing vertically-integrated utilities to eschew generation, Exelon spun off Constellation in 2015, which became final in 2022.
In a recent New York Times interview, Exelon CEO Calvin Butler said, “We don’t generate one kilowatt. My focus has always been on the infrastructure, the grid, but now because of affordability and the lack of supply, utilities like ours should be able to get back into the generation business.”
Exelon’s BG&E submitted a Maryland proposal for 29 MW of new battery energy storage and said it would follow with a plan for another 58 MW in the November 2026 solicitation. The electric distribution utility has two battery storage facilities in place in Calvert County: a 2.5MW/9.74 MWH array and an earlier 1 MW/2MWH installation, taking wholesale power from the PJM grid.
The Chicago utility has said it also plans to ask the Maryland legislature in 2026 to change the state law so that it could build a new nuclear plant in the state. CEO Butler has said, “I believe the 2026 legislative sessions are going to be an opportunity for us,” Exelon CEO Calvin Butler told Reuters. “We’re going to be advocating for it.”
Exelon building new generation? Constellation’s Joe Dominguez isn’t happy. At the Chamber of Commerce meeting, he was scornful of Exelon’s ambitions. In a dig at his former parent, he told the state’s business leaders to choose Exelon “If you want somebody who will take no risk, has no expertise, no talent and no land to do this — and charge you 10%.”
Later, he added, “We are not now and never will be a monopoly that seeks guaranteed profits. We are a company that competes for its opportunities just like all our hardworking customers do — every single day,”
The Banner elucidated: “At the core of Dominguez’s case: If state leaders pick his company to address the state’s energy needs, Constellation would make the investment and pay for it.
“Exelon, on the other hand, could charge ratepayers for the build-out. If the investor-owned utility company is allowed to reenter the ring, critics warn it would leave ratepayers on the hook for a new plant’s construction and operation.”
Exelon spokesman James Gherardi responded that Exelon’s eyeing a return to generation “clearly struck a nerve. The generation needed in Maryland won’t build itself,” he said. “Instead of focusing on who shouldn’t build, we are focused on who will.”
“Private energy generation corporations have not offered meaningful solutions sufficient to solve the supply crisis at the heart of rising energy costs, as the most recent bids for energy development in Maryland show once again,”