Brandon Shores Generating Station

The Brandon Shores Generating Station is an electric generating station located on Fort Smallwood Road north of Orchard Beach in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, near Glen Burnie, and is operated by Raven Power Holdings, Inc. Brandon Shores consists of two Babcock & Wilcox coal-fired boilers and two General Electric steam turbines with a combined nominal generating capacity of 1370 MWe. Unit 1 went into operation in May 1984 and Unit 2 in May 1991.

The station shares a 483 acre site adjacent to the Patapsco River with the Herbert A. Wagner Generating Station. The Brandon Shores plant dominates the site with its 700 foot exhaust and 400 foot flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) system stacks. In April 2023, Talen notified their grid operator, PJM, that they intended to close the station.

Coal delivery
The Brandon Shores and Wagner Generating Stations consume approximately 4.8 million tons of coal annually. Coal for both stations is delivered by barge. Although there is a railroad spur into the site, it is unused and would require improvements to restore it to an operational state.

Environmental violations
Constellation Energy disposed fly ash from Brandon Shores at a former sand and gravel mine in Gambrills, Maryland during 1996 to 2007. The ash contaminated groundwater with heavy metals. The Maryland Department of the Environment issued a fine of $1 million to Constellation. Nearby residents filed a lawsuit against Constellation and in 2008 the company settled the case for $54 million.

Renovation
In order to meet Maryland requirements for reductions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and mercury, the plant was substantially renovated between 2007 and 2010. A new 400 ft twin FGD stack was built to replace the existing 700 ft stacks, which have been capped and are inoperative. Flue gas from the boilers is routed through the emissions control system that sprays the exhaust with a limestone slurry and collects gypsum for use in wallboard and fly ash for use in concrete. The system uses treated municipal wastewater from the Anne Arundel County Cox Creek wastewater treatment plant as the source of water for making the limestone slurry.

2012 sale
The plant was originally constructed by a predecessor company of Constellation Energy, which was purchased by Exelon in 2012. On August 9, 2012, Exelon announced that it had reached an agreement 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, for approximately $400 million. 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.

Scheduled closure
On November 10, 2020, Talen Energy (parent company of Raven Power) announced that it will stop burning coal at the Brandon Shores and Wagner plants by the end of 2025. The plants will be converted to use alternative fuel sources.

In April 2023, Talen notified grid operator PJM that they instead intended to close Brandon Shores. However, the PJM Interconnection found that the shutdown would pose unacceptable grid reliability risks, so they have not approved its closure. For this reason, the power plant may stay online until 2028. Clean energy advocates have accused PJM of failing to proactively plan for the shutdown of the power plant, and explore other options that could maintain grid stability without it.

Dispatch of electricity
The electrical output of Brandon Shores Generating Station is dispatched by the PJM Interconnection regional transmission organization.