US President Donald Trump has issued an executive order to ensure the reliability of the power grid, citing the surge of demand driven by the expansion of AI data centers and an increase in domestic manufacturing.
According to Trump in a White House statement, this increase in energy demand, coupled with existing capacity challenges, will place significant strain on the country’s national electricity grid.
The order sees the US Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, tasked with streamlining, systemizing, and expediting the Department of Energy’s (DoE) processes for issuing orders during periods of power supply interruptions. This includes the review and approval of applications by electric generation resources seeking to operate at maximum capacity.
Under the order, Wright will develop a method to analyze current and anticipated reserve margins for all regions of the bulk power system regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
This methodology will assess varied grid conditions and accredit generation resources based on historical performance and the order requires Wright to incorporate the methodology into a process that assesses reserve margins on a regular basis and identifies which generation resources in a region are critical to system reliability.
Wright will utilize this process to prevent significant generation resources from leaving the grid or converting fuel sources if it would result in a net reduction in accredited generating capacity.
The new methodology is expected to be published on the US Department of Energy’s website in the next three months.
Coal, AI and data centers
Trump’s executive order was issued in the same breath as another aiming to increase domestic energy production in the US, namely from coal.
Both orders on grid reliability and coal revival are centered around meeting increasing demands in the country coming from the likes of data centers and AI. Whereas the power demand coming from such tech threatens grid stability, according to Trump, coal is cost-effective, abundant and will be able to meet these increasing electricity demands.
Thus, Trump’s ‘Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry’ order aims to help modernize coal technologies, expand domestic critical mineral production and accelerate the commercialization of mineral extraction technology.
The executive orders also come a week after a release from the DoE identifying 16 federal sites across the country for data center and AI infrastructure development.
Specifically, the DoE released a Request for Information (RFI) to inform possible use of DoE land for AI infrastructure development to support growing demand, identifying potential sites uniquely positioned for rapid data center construction, including in-place energy infrastructure with the ability to fast-track permitting for new energy generation such as nuclear.
Said Wright at the time: “The global race for AI dominance is the next Manhattan project…
“With today’s action, the Department of Energy is taking important steps to leverage our domestic resources to power the AI revolution, while continuing to deliver affordable, reliable and secure energy to the American people.”
Originally published in Smart Energy International.
