How is the United States going to stabilize the grid?

Let’s start with Texas and ERCOT and take a look at the growth and plans.

As we prepare for President Trump’s inauguration, we are looking to see how he can keep some of the campaign promises. One of those campaign promises is to cut the energy costs to Americans in half in his first year. Well, he is off to a great start with his cabinet picks for Secretary of the Interior, Energy, and head of the EPA.

With the EIA posting stories about potential grid failures and demand growth due to AI and Data Centers, we wonder how the additional demand for the grid will be met. So, I started breaking down how we would grow electrical generation the fastest.

Nuclear is clearly the best option, but the average time to reach a decision has been decades. Coal is out, even though it would be the cheapest, leaving natural gas. The United States has about 2,485 natural gas power plants.

In the United States, under construction, pre-construction, or planning, we have a new maximum capacity of 2,503 MW of additional capacity coming online by 2026.

• 44 are under construction

• 42 are in the Pre-Construction or planning stages

• 12 are in the Announced stage

Trying to break this down into bite-size concepts, we can look at Texas first. Texans enjoy energy costs about 1/2 of New York or California thanks to nuclear, natural gas, and coal. The “all the above,” including wind and solar, has worked so far for Texas, but that may be coming to an end.