Maryland may see more bonds issued for local power plants starting as soon as next year if a measure by Gov. Martin O’Malley wins approval from the legislature in the session that begins in January.
The legislation announced by O’Malley during the Maryland Association of Counties annual summer conference on Aug. 16 would enable municipalities to build their own power plants using bonds issued by Maryland Environmental Services, said Maryland Energy Administration director Malcolm D. Woolf.
“I know that none of us are really expecting any municipality or county to take on the construction of [a large nuclear plant] on their own, but smaller scale, on-site generation and behind-the-meter generators can be cost-effective and considerably less complicated to build,” O’Malley said. “We also have a long-established model in the town of Easton of how smaller, municipally owned generation can actually save significant energy costs for municipal consumers while meeting the overall demand for generation on the grid.”
The MES usually floats bonds for such purposes as landfill incinerators used to generate energy, Woolf said. O’Malley’s bill would expand its scope to local plants, adding energy to the power grid during peak demand times, such as during hot summer days.
No dollar amount has been attached to the proposal, nor is there currently an estimated number of power plants that would be funded through bonds.
The legislation should come out this fall when the governor puts forward his other initiatives, said Brandon Farris, policy director at the MEA. Farris said the governor hopes to include all Maryland counties in the plan.
A nearly identical bill was introduced in the last session but failed to pass through both houses of the legislature.
The proposal would allow MES to act as both an electricity supply aggregater by contracting with local agencies, and a direct supplier to residents of a municipality at the retail level, according to the previous bill’s fiscal note. The agency would probably need to join PJM, a wholesale market operator, and file as a power marketer with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the fiscal note said.
MES currently has responsibility for more than 375 projects in every jurisdiction in Maryland, and the service collected $109.6 million in user charges during fiscal 2007.
