For any person to build a power plant or transmission line greater than 69 kV in Maryland, a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) must be obtained from the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC). As part of this licensing process, applicants must address a full range of environmental, engineering, socioeconomic, planning, and cost issues. The Power Plant Siting Act of 1971, augmented by the Electric Utility Industry Restructuring Act of 1999, provides for a consolidated review of Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity applications in Maryland. The Power Plant Research Program is responsible for managing that review and bringing to the Public Service Commission a consolidated set of licensing recommendations. This is the only process within the state regulatory framework that allows a comprehensive review of all electric power issues, with the goal of balancing the tradeoffs required to provide needed electrical power at reasonable cost while protecting the state’s valuable natural resources.

The Power Plant Research Program has assembled several items on these web pages to help guide power plant developers through the licensing process.  This includes a description of the Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity process, a copy of the regulations that govern the siting of power generation and transmission line facilities and copies of the relevant portions of the Public Service Commission and Department of Natural Resources' statute that relate to siting and licensing of power plants in Maryland.  The information provided is current as of April 26, 2007 and has been obtained from the following publicly available web sites: Code of Public General Laws (Statutes) of Maryland and http://www.dsd.state.md.us. The Power Plant Research Program recommends that anyone using this information double-check the web sites to assure that they are referencing the most current copies of the information.