Trump’s push to keep coal plants running could cost consumers billions
If you ran a company, would you need the government to tell you what you needed to sell and for how much?
As a free-market economy, our utilities are franchised by each State in which they operate. They are required to pursue the most cost effective energy and make 20 year forecast and plans to do so. These plans are rigorously reviewed and commitments made to ensure the power needs are met.
The President of the United States has many powers based on his primary responsibility; protect the Constitution of the United State. In this capacity, an emergency was declared and the Present decided to override over 10 years of planning to order the continued operation of aged and decrepit coal fired power plants. The reason; national security. How does replacing an obsolete coal fired power plant with new generation challenge the security of the Unit State? Perhaps, the President is making a political statement.
Let’s look at how.
Utilities, no longer own all there generation plants. However, utilities contract to buy the energy they produce. Utilities pursue cost effective energy. The President’s order will upend their planning and require them to buy the coal plants output, which IS MORE expensive than the energy they are currently purchasing. YES, the coal plants COST more than the power plants that have been built to replace them.
State and utility companies have planned for hundreds of gigawatts of new power plants most of it from solar, wind and battery. These power plants are utility grade; meaning they will be operated in a baseload continuous generation mode.
It is estimated that continuing to operate the obsolete coal plants will cost the US economy over $15 billion/year.
That’s just the current cost.
Consider the US is experiencing some of the largest projected electric growth — over 3% per year through 2024.
So instead of continuing to replace aging and obsolete plants with new technology and more reliable energy generation, WE WON’T BE ABLE TO. Not because it’s not cost effective, not because it’s not more efficient, but because the President wants to believe that PAYING MORE and NOT PLANNING is making us great again.
Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer serving commercial customers in the states of Illinois, and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed SavingsTM, ManagedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM Index, Fixed and PriceAssuranceTM.
Realgy owns and operates 11 solar plants in Illinois and is looking to invest in additional locations.
Park District of Highland Park on 20 July 2025 signed up for their 2nd location with Realgy for PV solar installation.
Additional Information:
Trump’s push to keep coal plants running could cost… | Canary Media
How AI is Affecting Energy Demand
Have you ever tripped a circuit breaker or had to reset an outlet strip?
You might have had your computer, printer, lamp—maybe even a coffee maker—all plugged into one power strip. Then you add a small heater, and suddenly, everything shuts down. The cause? Too much power (kWh) being drawn, which trips the breaker or thermal reset.
Now image that on a larger scale.
NVIDIA chips (or their equivalents), which power AI centers, consume around 200 watts each when operating. Companies like Amazon, IBM, Meta, Tesla, and Microsoft are planning to install millions of these chips. NVIDIA alone expects to ship 6 million chips by mid-2026.
The power demands for these chips are significant.
Consider 6 million NVDIA chips running 24/7 for one year is 36,792,000,000,000 kWh
In 2022 that energy represents.
• 6% of the entire US energy consumed
• 20% of the entire state of Illinois energy
• 43% of ComEd energy
Plugging in 43% demand into ComEd would blow a few circuit breakers! This doesn’t take into consideration all the computers trying to access the results of these new AI centers.
The consideration of creating such energy intensity in such a short time frame is having profound impact on energy utilities in the United States. Beyond generating power is the distribution of that power and the emissions of that energy production.
Solar and wind energy sources are the most economical and quickest to deploy choices, however they may not be considered due to political considerations.
Power demands cannot be met by issuing press releases. They take serious planning and billions of dollars in expenditure.
When you make your next Chat GPT query consider the power needs to deliver that answer.
Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer serving commercial customers in the states of Illinois, and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed SavingsTM, ManagedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM Index, Fixed and PriceAssuranceTM.
Realgy owns and operates 11 solar plants in Illinois and is looking to invest in additional locations.
Additional Information:
Electricity data browser – Net generation for all fuels (utility-scale)
Everything You Need to Know About Nvidia H200 GPUs
Mizuho Analysts Raise Nvidia AI GPU Shipment Forecast for 2025 – EconoTimes
