Country United States Primary fuel Bituminous coal Owner Avenue Capital Group | Status Operational Secondary fuel Fuel oil Units operational 190 | |
 | ||
Location Bowleys Quarters, Maryland Commission date Unit 1: July, 1961
Unit 2: February, 1963 Similar Herbert A Wagner Generatin, Brandon Shores Generatin, Chalk Point Generating Station, Gould Street Generatin, R Paul Smith Power St | ||
The Charles P. Crane Generating Station is a coal-fired electric generating station located on the Carroll Island Road in Bowleys Quarters, Maryland, 14 miles (23 km) east of Baltimore. The power plant is operated by C.P. Crane, LLC, a subsidiary of Avenue Capital Group. The station has two coal-fired generating units, rated at 190 and 209 MWe nominal capacity, and powered by cyclone steam boilers. It also has a 16-MWe oil-fired combustion turbine. The Crane station occupies 157 acres (64 ha) on the Middle River Neck Peninsula adjacent to the Seneca Creek tributary of the Gunpowder River, and is on the rural side of the Baltimore County Urban Rural Demarcation Line.
Contents
Coal delivery
Coal is delivered to the generating station by a dedicated rail spur used by the Norfolk Southern Railway that connects to Amtrak's Northeast Corridor line. Regulatory approval to construct facilities allowing delivery by barge using a dredged channel from the Chesapeake Bay was granted in 2006. The cyclone boilers require the use of medium-sulfur, low-fusion coal, which has been supplied mainly using North Appalachian Pittsburgh Seam 8 coal. The station uses approximately 950,000 tons of coal each year.
History
The two cyclone boiler units were originally oil-fired. Unit 1 went into operation in 1961 and unit 2 in 1963. These two units were modified to use coal as their primary fuel following an order by the Department of Energy under the Energy Supply and Environmental Coordination Act of 1974.
The station is named for Charles P. Crane, who from 1950 to 1957 was president of the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company, the predecessor company of Constellation Energy, and its chairman from 1955 to 1961.
2012 sale
On August 9, 2012, Exelon announced that it had reached an agreement, subject to regulatory approvals, for the sale of the Charles P. Crane, Brandon Shores, and Herbert A. Wagner Generating Stations to Raven Power Holdings LLC, a newly formed portfolio company of Riverstone Holdings LLC. Exelon had committed to divest the plants as condition for regulatory approval of its merger with Constellation Energy to alleviate concerns regarding potential market power in the regional wholesale electricity market. The sale was completed on November 30, 2012.
Talen Energy and 2016 sale
Talen Energy assumed ownership of the plant on June 1, 2015 when the company was established as the combination of Riverstone Holdings, LLC with PPL Corporation's spun off power generation business. As a condition of the merger, Talen was required by FERC to sell about 1,300 MW of generation in the PJM region to avoid dominating the market. Talen announced on October 23, 2015 that the C.P. Crane plant would be sold in early 2016 to an affiliate of Avenue Capital Group as one of its divestitures to fulfill the FERC order. The sale was completed on February 16, 2016, at which time the plant began operating as C.P. Crane, LLC.
Dispatch of electricity
The electrical output of Charles P. Crane Generating Station is dispatched by the PJM Interconnection regional transmission organization.