ODEC ready to buy turbines for Maryland power plant

Glen Allen-based Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC) has signed a deal for turbines and electric generators for its proposed Wildcat Point power plant in Maryland.

Two natural-gas turbines and associated generators from Mitsubishi Power Systems Americas Inc. would be used in the power generation facility in Cecil County. The site is adjacent to ODEC’s existing Rock Springs plant.

Details of the Mitsubishi contract were not disclosed.

Preliminary costs for the plant were estimated last spring at $675 million. That number, however, does not include some startup and financing costs.

The power plant is expected to generate about 1,000 megawatts, enough to power 390,000 homes in the region annually. The plant is expected to begin operation in 2017.

Plans for the Wildcat Point plant were announced mean after ODEC postponed indefinitely its proposed coal-burning Cypress Creek power plant in Surry.

he $6 billion plant faced stiff opposition from environmentalists and some community residents.

The project also encountered stricter pollution control requirements from the Environmental Protection Agency.

ODEC has seen its electricity sales grow more than 26 percent in the past 10 years and expects additional growth during the next decade. Wildcat Point would provide power to ODEC's 11 member distribution cooperatives, including 52,000 customers on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

ODEC is a nonprofit, member-owned wholesale power supplier providing electricity to 1.2 million people in 70 counties in Maryland, Virginia and Delaware.