CPV St. Charles Energy Center

To keep pace with Maryland’s electricity-driven lifestyle, Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) plans to build a 725 megawatt natural gas-fired combined cycle power plant in Charles County, Maryland. Known as CPV St. Charles, the new facility will generate enough electricity to power 700,000 homes and use state-of-the-art technology to produce electricity efficiently and cleanly to help meet the region’s demand for energy. Thorough environmental review by local, state and federal regulators began in fall 2007.

When completed, CPV St. Charles will be one of the cleanest natural gas facilities ever built in Maryland and the Washington, DC area, using clean natural gas and helping reduce the dependency on older coal-burning power plants which currently supply a majority of the region’s power. Additionally, the plant’s innovative design will prevent it from being a strain on local water resources by utilizing greywater.

CPV plans to build and operate the new facility on a 77-acre site in an industrial zone which has long been set aside for a power plant and which was previously fully permitted by another power company. The site is adjacent to an existing asphalt plant, the Charles County landfill, and an existing power line, eliminating the need to construct new transmission towers or power lines. CPV recently entered into a purchase agreement for the site with American Community Properties Trust, the current property owner and developer of St. Charles.
Additionally, CPV recently obtained priority rights to tie the plant directly into the region’s power grid, giving CPV St. Charles a time and cost advantage over other proposed new power plants in the metropolitan Washington, DC area.

After a thorough environmental review and the issuance of all necessary local, state and federal permits, construction of CPV St. Charles is expected to begin in late 2012. When completed, CPV St. Charles will be one of the largest taxpayers in Charles County and therefore a major new, long-term source of additional funding for local schools and services. Its construction will create approximately 350-400 jobs at peak and it will create 24 permanent jobs when operational. Strong efforts will be made to use local labor to the greatest extent possible.
 

Project Details

Type of Facility: Highly-efficient, combined-cycle (2-on-1) natural gas electric generating station

Location: In Charles County, MD, on land zoned for industrial use, previously permitted for a power plant, between high-voltage transmission lines and next to a landfill and an asphalt plant

Capacity: Generating capacity of 725 MW, enough to power 700,000 homes
Facility On-Line: 2015/2016

Fuel: Natural Gas supplied by Dominion from either their Cove Point LNG terminal or their existing pipeline

Electrical Interconnection: The project site is adjacent to Pepco’s ROW containing four (Morgantown/Hawkins Gate to Talbert/Oakgrove) 230 kV circuits. CPV St. Charles requested interconnection to two of these four lines (23084 and 23086).

Cost: More than $500 million of private investment