A Fowl Plan to Serve the Public

East Coast utility Conectiv Inc. may have hatched a new use for what the Wilmington, Del., company euphemistically refers to as “poultry-derived fuel.”

Conectiv is contemplating converting a small oil-fired power plant in Maryland to run on chicken manure, primarily as a public service, said spokesman Michael Ratchford. The investor-owned utility’s service area is thick with poultry farms, which are thick with you-know-what.

“There has been a lot of attention paid to listeria [bacteria] and the management, or non-management, of the poultry waste in our area,” Ratchford said. “It’s raised environmental concerns.”

Conectiv Chief Executive Howard Cosgrove met this week with the governors of Delaware and Maryland, who are encouraging the project. The poop-to-power conversion, still two or three years in the future, is believed to be the first in the United States.