Constellation targets Harford County for new gas plant, but pipeline costs could get in the way

by Christine Condon, Maryland Matters
November 20, 2025

There’s a slight hitch in Constellation’s plan to construct a new natural gas-fired power plant in Maryland: The potentially prohibitive cost of delivering natural gas to the proposed Harford County site.

“We will need some help on that,” Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez told a room full of policymakers, businesspeople and lobbyists Thursday. “I was told that the gas interconnection — the extension of the gas to the site to enable these things — is something like $800 million.”

His comments came in a speech at the Maryland Chamber of Commerce’s 2025 Policy Forum at the University of Maryland, College Park. Dominguez laid out Constellation’s plans for more energy generation, challenged state lawmakers to help — both financially and in terms of policy — and railed against the idea that electric utilities, such as Exelon, would be allowed to get back in the business of power generation, in competition with Constellation.

The remarks also came as Constellation is hoping to get fast-track approval for new power generation, one of a number of measures approved this year under the Next Generation Act, as lawmakers responded to high energy bills enraging consumers.

Constellation submitted three projects to Next Generation Act approval: a larger natural gas generating facility and a smaller version, as well as a proposal for 800 megawatts of battery storage, which could contribute power onto the grid during times of peak demand.

Dominguez, for the first time, identified Constellation property near the Perryman Generating Station in Aberdeen, as the site for all three projects.

The Perryman site already hosts oil- and gas-fired generating units, but Dominguez said transporting additional natural gas to the site would still come at a steep cost, according to the company’s internal estimates. Constellation could turn to the General Assembly for help, he said.

He noted that some states, for instance, have used bonds to finance desired energy projects, Dominguez said. But, whereas regulated utilities, like those in Maryland, usually receive a guaranteed return on their investment of 10%, the state requires utilities to build the infrastructure at cost.

“They say to the utilities: ‘Look, we’ll raise, in a bond, the money and give it to you. But you don’t add 10% to the bill,’” Dominguez said in an interview.

As for the cost of connecting the Perryman plan to natural gas lines, Baltimore Gas & Electric spokesman Nick Alexopulos said in a statement 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,” Alexopulos said. BGE is an Exelon company.

Dominguez said Constellation also wants assurance from Maryland policymakers that they actually want new gas generation to respond to ever-increasing power demand projections, largely from data centers. Otherwise, Constellation won’t build it, he said.

Just a few years ago, Maryland lawmakers passed the Climate Solutions Now Act, which requires the state to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 60% from 2006 levels by 2031. Gov. Wes Moore (D) has backed a goal to meet the state’s electricity needs with 100% clean energy by 2035.

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Things shifted slightly when soaring utility bills paved the way for the Next Generation Act — and potentially new gas-fired generation — but the idea of a new gas plant has unsurprisingly attracted ire from climate groups.

“You shouldn’t say: ‘I’m really upset no one is building natural gas-fired generation, and simultaneously have a policy that says anybody who builds merchant gas-fired generation has got to be out of business by 2035,” Dominguez told the crowd on Thursday.

The Next Generation Energy Act created a new regulatory fast-track through the Maryland Public Service Commission for certain energy projects. Policymakers did not explicitly call for new natural gas. Instead, they said zero-emissions projects should outnumber emissions-generating ones, and they required that any new gas plant have the potential to transition to hydrogen fuel.

Besides Constellation, only two other companies put in applications for the fast-tracked project  by the Oct. 31 deadline — one for an upgrade at an existing gas plant in Prince George’s County and another entirely confidential proposal. The PSC has until late December, 60 days after the deadline, to decide which proposals will receive the expedited consideration

The PSC also opened a procurement for the state to buy battery energy storage technology, which attracted proposals from BGE and Potomac Edison, among others.

Exelon wants to build a power plant in Maryland, reversing decades of deregulation policy

If electric utilities like Exelon were to reenter the power generation business, it would reverse a Maryland policy that has stood for more than a quarter-century. It would also mean that ratepayers would foot the bill.

Constellation had been part of Exelon, but it was spun off.

“It is curious to us, as you can imagine,” Dominguez said. “Constellation was launched a little bit over 40 months ago. It was launched by Exelon because Exelon decided it did not think it was prudent to put its owner’s money into the generation business.”

“Every bit of expertise, including operating all the land, all the equipment, came with us to Constellation,” Dominguez added.

In response, Alexopulos from BGE said it’s clear that Exelon’s campaign has “struck a nerve.”

“The generation needed in Maryland won’t build itself. Instead of focusing on who shouldn’t build, we are focused on who will,” Alexopulos wrote. “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.”

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org.