Restoring Reliability: Coal Recommissioning and Modernization

DE-FOA-0003605 Restoring Reliability Coal Recommissioning and Modernization. The United States is confronting an urgent grid capacity crisis. DOE’s 2025 Grid Reliability Assessment (DOE/GR-2025-001) confirmed that coal retirements outpace other reliable, affordable, and secure generation resources. These challenges are especially acute in regions with constrained transmission and sustained load growth. In January 2025, Executive Order 14156 declared a national energy emergency, directing DOE and other federal agencies to use their full statutory authority to ensure reliable, affordable and secure generation resources.

The operational strain created by the increasing penetration of intermittent renewables has forced thermal units to cycle beyond their designed parameters, accelerating wear and raising the risk of forced outages and blackouts. This reliability emergency coincides with surging demand from national defense installations, semiconductor fabrication, AI data centers, critical mineral processing, and industrial re-shoring, all of which require uninterrupted access to reliable, affordable and secure power.

Coal-fired generation assets, long central to U.S. energy security, retain valuable infrastructure make them uniquely positioned to deliver near-term reliability at scale. The recommissioning, retrofitting, and strategically repurposing these assets offers the fastest and most cost-effective path to restoring stability while supporting the nation’s industrial and security priorities.