AI is keeping coal alive, made concrete
The phrase "AI is keeping coal alive" has been used in the energy press for about 18 months now as a shorthand for the dynamic where new data-center load delays coal plant retirements. It is usually argued from utility integrated resource plan filings -- the documents where utilities propose new generation, demand forecasts, and retirement schedules to state public utility commissions.
What the proximity data lets us do is make the frame concrete. Of the 19 data centers within 5 miles of operating coal, eight sit adjacent to plants whose operational futures are being publicly contested -- through IRP extensions, PSC orders, gas-fueled retrofits that keep aging coal units running, or subsidies whose justification is increasingly the new firm load down the road. The specific mechanism varies by state. The pattern of long-lived coal adjacent to hyperscale data-center load does not:
1. Sherco / Sherburne County (MN) -- Xcel Energy's 2024 IRP holds the public retirement schedule for Sherco: Unit 2 retired 2023, Unit 1 retiring 2026, Unit 3 retiring 2030. Total coal capacity is 1,704 MW (units from 1976, 1977, and 1987). Three hyperscaler campuses sit within 1.2 miles of the plant: Google Becker Data Center, Microsoft Becker Campus, and Amazon AWS Becker Data Center. Sherburne County's 2020 "Sherco Industrial Park" rezoning was sold publicly as a coal-retirement transition strategy. Whether the 2030 timeline survives gigawatt-class data-center load coming online next door is the question the Minnesota PUC has not yet had to answer.
2. Roxboro (NC) -- Duke Energy's 2024 Carbon Plan retires Roxboro Units 1 and 4 by 2029 and continues Units 2 and 3 to 2034, replacing the retired capacity with gas-fired combined-cycle units. In May 2025 testimony before the North Carolina Utilities Commission, Duke described "a data center" as "the primary reason for the extra capacity." That data center is the Microsoft Person County Megasite 3.9 miles away, identified by The Assembly NC's reporting despite Duke's nondisclosure-agreement arrangement that anonymized it in filings. Roxboro is 2,558 MW; unit 1 entered service in 1966.
3. Walter Scott Jr (IA) -- MidAmerican Energy has publicly stated it has "no plans to retire its five Iowa coal plants before 2049," despite Environmental Law & Policy Center analyses showing a 2030 retirement could save Iowa ratepayers $1.2 billion. The 1,648 MW Walter Scott Jr (in service since 1978) is one of those five. It sits 3.75 miles from Google Council Bluffs Expansion, at the center of the Council Bluffs hyperscaler cluster. There is no near-term retirement date to "extend" because MidAmerican never set one; the data-center buildout is reinforcing a long-life commitment the utility had already made.
4. E C Gaston (AL) -- In January 2025, Georgia Power -- joint owner of Gaston with Alabama Power -- filed its 2025 IRP proposing to extend Units 1-4 and Unit A operation from a December 31, 2028 retirement date to the end of 2034. The proposal is pending Georgia PSC approval. Gaston is 1,880 MW; Units 1-4 are steam resources that operate primarily on gas with coal backup, Unit 5 is the primary coal unit. The proposed NorthPoint Wilsonville (Contested) data center sits 1.68 miles from the plant, with projected peak demand of 1,008 MW -- more than half the plant's output. Alabama Power has separately received PSC approval to acquire a $622 million existing gas plant, raising customer rates in anticipation of data-center load growth in the territory.
5. Monroe (MI) -- DTE Energy's Monroe plant is the only entry on this list moving against the broader pattern. From an original 2040 retirement horizon, the 2022 IRP accelerated to 2035, and the 2023 Michigan PSC settlement accelerated further to 2028 for two units and 2032 for the other two. Monroe is 3,280 MW, the largest single coal plant in Michigan; oldest unit 1971. The Cloverleaf Cherry Blossom Frenchtown (Contested) data center sits 3.87 miles away. The retirement acceleration has held so far -- but the same fact pattern that delivered extensions elsewhere on this list (large adjacent firm load) is now present in DTE's service territory. Michigan PSC filings on the 2028 deadline are the proceeding to watch.
6. H L Spurlock (KY) -- East Kentucky Power Cooperative has no scheduled retirement date for Spurlock. In November 2024 EKPC filed an application with the Kentucky Public Service Commission to retrofit Spurlock Units 1-4 to allow co-firing of up to 50% natural gas at an estimated cost of $187 million; the PSC granted a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity in July 2025. The retrofit -- expected commercial operation by December 2029 -- keeps the 1,609 MW plant running with a different fuel mix rather than retiring it. The Adams County Data Center (Former Stuart Plant, 1.3 GW) sits 3.79 miles away across the Ohio River. Spurlock's oldest unit dates to 1977.
7. Kyger Creek (OH) -- The Ohio Valley Electric Corporation that owns Kyger Creek kept the 1955-vintage plant running for years through ratepayer-funded subsidies created by Ohio's 2019 House Bill 6. Those subsidies were eliminated by a new state law that took effect August 2025. The plant has not announced a retirement date. Whether OVEC's economics now depend on data-center load (with HB6 subsidies gone) is one of the most consequential undisclosed questions in the AI build-out. Kyger Creek is 1,087 MW; its oldest unit is one of the oldest operating coal units in the United States. The Monarch Compute Campus / Nscale-Microsoft (8 GW) sits 4.49 miles away across the Ohio River in Point Pleasant, WV.
8. Mitchell (WV) -- In 2021, the West Virginia Public Service Commission approved Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power's request to keep three coal plants -- Amos, Mountaineer, and Mitchell -- operating until at least 2040, a roughly twelve-year extension from the prior 2028 horizon. The PSC order found that "prematurely retiring the Plants at least twelve years prior to the current estimated retirement year of 2040" was "not... supported by the evidence," citing the cost of stranded investment as the basis. Mitchell is 1,633 MW with units from 1971; AEP estimates roughly $317 million in environmental compliance modifications across the three plants. The Bitdeer Clarington Data Center sits 4.28 miles away.
This is not an exhaustive list, and the strength of the data-center-to-coal-extension link varies case by case. In some -- Roxboro, Gaston, Mitchell -- the utility has filed for or received approval to push retirement dates back, and the regulatory record explicitly cites new firm load (sometimes naming a hyperscaler data center, sometimes redacting the customer). In others -- Spurlock, Kyger Creek, Walter Scott Jr -- there is no near-term retirement to "extend," but the long-term operational commitment is reinforced by the spatial reality of adjacent gigawatt-class data-center load. In one -- Monroe -- DTE is actively accelerating retirement, against the broader pattern; whether that acceleration holds as new data-center load proposals emerge in the service territory is now an open question. The mechanisms vary by state. The spatial correlation does not -- and Power Mode lets you see where it lands geographically.