Reality Check: We Have What’s Needed to Reliably Power the Data Center Boom, and It’s Not Coal Plants

The briefing challenges the notion that coal plants are necessary for grid reliability amidst a data center boom in the US. It asserts that coal plants are prone to unplanned outages, lack the ramp speed required for voltage-sensitive loads, and create grid congestion. The author suggests that over 95 percent of future demand can be met using scalable clean solutions such as battery storage and demand flexibility.

• Coal-fired power plants are increasingly unreliable due to age and wear, with capacity accreditations—the amount of time they can contribute to peak demand—often falling below 100 percent. For example, PJM and the Energy Systems Integration Group (ESIG) have capacity accreditations for coal plants at 83 percent, while the Colstrip plant in Montana was found to have a capacity accreditation of only 54 percent.
• Coal plants lack the operational flexibility and ramp speeds necessary to support the dynamic needs of data centers, which are voltage-sensitive loads. While a grid must respond to load changes at sub-second speeds, the average coal plant ramp rate is only 4 percent per minute, and a cold start can take over 12 hours to reach maximum capacity.
• The use of inflexible coal plants can lead to grid congestion and market distortions. In the MISO region, which encompasses a Canadian province and 15 US states, congestion-related market distortions have cost more than $1 billion annually.
• Clean and scalable alternatives, including battery storage, demand flexibility, and clean energy portfolios, are capable of meeting more than 95 percent of future electricity demand.

APA

RMI (2025). Reality Check: We Have What’s Needed to Reliably Power the Data Center Boom, and It’s Not Coal Plants. https://rmi.org/resources/reality-check-we-have-whats-needed-to-reliably-power-the-data-center-boom-and-its-not-coal-plants/

Chicago

RMI. Reality Check: We Have What’s Needed to Reliably Power the Data Center Boom, and It’s Not Coal Plants. 2025. https://rmi.org/resources/reality-check-we-have-whats-needed-to-reliably-power-the-data-center-boom-and-its-not-coal-plants/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Reality Check: We Have What’s Needed to Reliably Power the Data Center Boom, and It’s Not Coal Plants |date=12 August 2025 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/reality-check-we-have-whats-needed-to-reliably-power-the-data-center-boom-and-its-not-coal-plants/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2025reality, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Reality Check: We Have What’s Needed to Reliably Power the Data Center Boom, and It’s Not Coal Plants}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2025}, month = aug, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/reality-check-we-have-whats-needed-to-reliably-power-the-data-center-boom-and-its-not-coal-plants/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }