Most coal-fired power plants will delay retirement to feed AI boom, energy secretary says

By Laila Kearney and Timothy Gardner

NEW YORK (Reuters) -The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump expects most of the nation's coal-fired power plants to delay retirement to help deliver the vast amount of electricity needed to fuel artificial intelligence, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Reuters on Thursday.

Keeping those often half-century-old coal plants running is part of a broader strategy to increase the country's power output that will also include boosting nuclear energy and allowing backup power plants to operate around the clock.

The administration has made expanding energy production a top priority while rejecting concerns about climate change, which Trump told the United Nations this week amounted to a global "con job."

"Energy sobriety has returned to Washington, D.C. Our focus is on Americans and the price of utility and avoiding blackouts," Wright said at a Reuters Newsmaker event. "We've got to stop existing firm capacity from retirement."

The government had been in discussions with many utilities nationwide and expects the majority of the several dozen U.S. coal plants nearing retirement to delay closure, he said.

"I would say the majority of that coal capacity will stay online," he added.

The administration is also prepared to use its emergency powers to extend the life of coal-fired plants, he said.

Last month, Wright extended his emergency order to keep a Michigan coal plant running, even though the plant's operator had been planning to shut permanently for economic reasons.

The Energy Department also ordered a gas and oil-fired power plant, slated for retirement in Pennsylvania, to continue operating.

Wright said more plants should expect similar orders, which fall under grid stability provisions in the Federal Power Act.

"Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, that's not the only one," Wright said.

Wright said the U.S. would also aim to get more out of the existing grid by running backup generators and standby power plants continuously, rather than just when electricity demand surges.

The White House is also seeking to boost nuclear energy, including through regulatory reforms to speed permitting and by hosting new nuclear technologies through the Department of Energy.

"We need that industry as another source of energy, and so we're going to give temporary nudges to get it started," Wright said.

Currently, two shut U.S. nuclear power plants - including one on Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania - are in the unprecedented process of being restarted. Three Mile Island, dubbed the Crane Clean Energy Center, would deliver electricity for Microsoft data centers.