Maryland's energy consumption

Summary: Maryland’s energy profile is connected to the Chesapeake Bay. The state receives most of its electricity from nuclear power and coal and plans to make solar and offshore wind a larger part of its energy mix.

Maryland’s energy profile is tied to the Chesapeake Bay, which provides energy-rich food, wind for transportation, and an ideal location for trade and commerce. During the twentieth century, industry in Maryland grew along with its population and total energy consumption. Today, electricity in Maryland is powered primarily by coal. The densely populated state imports electricity and is likely to see growth in either generation capacity or transmission in coming years to meet electricity demand. Although the role of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland’s energy profile has evolved over time, the connection endures. Concerns over climate change, including potential impacts on the Chesapeake Bay, have inspired citizens and government officials to transform Maryland’s energy profile through use of renewable energy resources and energy efficiency investments.

Energy History

Maryland surrounds the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States and a source of primary energy. The Chesapeake Bay is a vast ecosystem with multiple producers and consumers interacting along the food web. Historically, Native Americans occupied the shores of the bay in part because it provided high-energy food options, including oysters and the blue crab. British and other European colonists selected the shores of the bay for settlement because it offered plentiful food. Perhaps more important, however, wind-powered ships—the only mode of intercontinental transportation in colonial America—could easily harbor in the open and protected waters of the bay.

The Chesapeake Bay’s energy-laden natural resources allowed Maryland to develop as a center of trade and commerce. Baltimore, the largest city in Maryland, grew considerably during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The location offered proximity to the agricultural south and an abundance of ports, which were necessary for international trade in tobacco, sugar, and flour. Maryland’s economy became increasingly industrial during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with local growth in iron and steel production, metalworking, and shipbuilding. Early industrial processes were energy-intensive and required large amounts of fuel energy.

Energy Today

Today, Maryland is less industrial and agricultural. Like the United States as a whole, Maryland’s economy gradually transitioned to one based on services, with the health and government sectors accounting for significant portions of the state’s gross domestic product. Despite this shift away from an energy-intensive economy, Maryland’s total energy consumption grew exponentially between 1960 and 2020 as a result of population growth and increased reliance on home appliances and personal transportation.

In 2021, the transportation sector consumed 33 percent of Maryland's energy, followed closely by the residential sector at 31 percent. The commercial sector came in at 29 percent and the industrial sector at 7 percent.

Production of fossil fuels in Maryland was minimal. Coal and natural gas were extracted in western Maryland, which included energy-rich portions of the Appalachian Mountains. Garrett and Allegany Counties in western Maryland lie in the Marcellus Shale geological formation, which holds significant quantities of natural gas. Extraction of shale gas in Maryland via hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") was suspended in 2015 and banned in 2017.

The Chesapeake Bay is a critical geographic feature for energy distribution and storage in the heavily populated eastern United States. The ports of Baltimore receive oil from abroad, and the Cove Point terminal, located in the bay, receives and stores liquefied natural gas.

More than 400 in-state generating units produced electricity in Maryland as of the 2020s. The majority of coal mined in the state's fourteen mines was used to generate elctrical power as of 2022. In addition, Maryland has a large nuclear facility, Calvert Cliffs, with a maximum capacity of around 1,756 megawatts, which provided 75 percent of the state’s electricity in 2022; Calvert Cliffs' license was renewed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2012, approving another forty years of operation. Natural gas, hydropower, and other renewable resources contribute to the electricity fuel mix as well. Maryland is in a deregulated electricity market, with four investor-owned utilities that distribute electricity to the majority of customers in the state. In addition, the state has four small municipal utilities and two electric cooperatives. Utilities in Maryland are subject to rate and regulatory oversight from the Maryland Public Service Commission.

Maryland falls under the jurisdiction of a regional transmission organization, PJM, which serves to ensure that electricity supply meets demand over an area covering thirteen states and the District of Columbia. This is relevant because Maryland currently has an insufficient supply of generating capacity to meet its demand. As a result, Maryland imports a substantial portion of its electricity from other states. Much of Maryland lies in a national interest electric transmission corridor, which means that additional transmission capacity is of central concern to the US government. Maryland is expected to see expansion of its transmission capacity in the coming years.

Energy Future

Maryland, and the Chesapeake Bay in particular, are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including temperature increases and sea-level rise. As a result, the state of Maryland is seeking to transform its energy profile through government policy. Maryland’s energy policy considers both the quantity and quality of energy consumed.

Maryland is a member of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a group of eleven states in the northeastern United States participating in a cap-and-trade market. The goal of the RGGI was to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Revenue from sale of GHG emissions allowances will be directed toward investment in energy efficiency. The state has also instituted a law that requires electric utilities to develop and implement energy efficiency and demand response programs.

Finally, Maryland had a renewable energy portfolio standard whereby 20 percent of electricity sold in the state was expected to come from renewable resources by 2022. However, renewable energy accounted for only 12 percent of the state total by that deadline. Offshore wind development was important in the state. Maryland is a relatively small, densely populated state, which creates challenges for siting commercial-scale wind farms onshore. To meet its renewable energy portfolio standard, Maryland may install significant offshore wind capacity in the Atlantic Ocean. Maryland is coordinating with the federal government and private wind developers in the hope of constructing one of the first offshore wind farms in the United States. Biomass from wood and municipal waste is another promising resource for Maryland, as is landfill gas.

Bibliography

"Maryland." US Energy Information Administration, 21 Dec. 2023, www.eia.gov/state/analysis.php?sid=MD. Accessed 5 Aug. 2024.

Reutter, Mark. Making Steel: Sparrows Point and the Rise and Ruin of American Industrial Might. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2004.

Ruth, M., et al. Economic and Energy Impacts From Maryland’s Participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. College Park: University of Maryland, 2007.

Thomas, William G., III. “The Chesapeake Bay.” Southern Spaces, April 2004.