November 21, 2025 - Coal-fired power plants in the US must be kept online for as long as possible to help meet the soaring energy demands of AI data centers, Chris Womack, CEO of energy utility Southern Company, has said.

At Schneider Electric’s North America Innovation Summit 2025, which took place in Las Vegas this week, Womack told delegates that his firm must “make sure we utilize all of the resources available to us" to cope with rapidly increasing energy demand across the US, which is being driven by the AI data center build-out.

He said: “We've got to build a lot of natural gas, be that combined cycle or combustion turbines. We're going to extend coal plants as long as we can because we need those resources on the grid."

Womack has previously commented that he would be open to prolonging the life of the firm’s coal power stations, despite the polluting nature of the fossil fuel-burning facilities.

Speaking in 2024, he said coal plants operating for longer was a “consideration” for the firm. It had planned to close most of its coal-fired fleet by 2028 and exit coal-fired generation by 2035. Womack argued at the time that any extension would not impact Southern Company's plan to reach net zero by 2050.

In February, it was reported, though not confirmed, that the firm could extend the life of its coal plants, which are located in Mississippi and Georgia, and generate 8.2GW until 2039.

US utility companies considering the future of their coal-fired power stations will have noted comments from Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who said at an event in September that he expected the retirement of coal facilities to be delayed.

Wright’s department formalized its pro-coal stance in October, with the launch of a $625m fund to retrofit and recommission old coal power stations.

“Beautiful, clean coal will be essential to powering America’s reindustrialization and winning the AI race,” Wright said.

Coal is widely recognized as one of the most polluting fossil fuels, creating 970 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per 1GWh of energy generated, compared to 720 tons for oil and 440 tons for natural gas.

Currently, the US has approximately 190GW of coal-fired capacity operational. These plants provided 16 percent of US energy in 2023, according to figures from the Energy Information Administration.

Womack said his company intends to build 10GW of power infrastructure between now and the end of the decade, investing in sustainable technologies such as battery storage and solar power. He also told the Innovation Summit that growing the US nuclear power fleet would be key to the future of the nation’s grid.

"We're going to have to build more nuclear, we're going to need more partnerships with customers and government,” he said. “I think this country should be building another 10GW of nuclear in the next couple of years, to have it online by the mid-2030s to meet this growing demand.