Chicago’s Pilsen neighbourhood feels like any other city neighbourhood created by generations of working families in the quiet moments before sunset. Kids are playing in Dvorak Park, and parents are watching from nearby benches. The sound of laughing echoes off the playground equipment. But just beyond this commonplace scene sits a reminder of a previous time in American industry: the Fisk power plant, which many people felt was already a thing of the past. It was thought that it would fade away forever, but it has become important again in a surprising way: the rapid growth of artificial intelligence.
The increased need for electricity in AI data centres is changing the U.S. power market in ways that few people saw coming. Fisk and other “peaker” plants were built to run only for short periods of time when there was a lot of demand, notably during heat waves or grid issues. Many of these old facilities lay virtually empty for years or were planned to be shut down because they were considered as outdated and inefficient in a power system that was steadily moving towards cleaner energy. That idea is now in trouble.
In the last few months, demand for electricity has skyrocketed in some of the biggest power markets in the US. This is especially true for PJM Interconnection, which provides power to most of the Midwest and sections of the East Coast. The quick growth of data centres that support AI has pushed demand beyond what is currently available, which has raised electricity rates and revealed weaknesses in the infrastructure. Power plants that were formerly thought to be useless are now becoming commercially appealing again.
At Fisk, an oil-fired plant that has been around since the 1960s, this change has been quite important. The plant’s eight generating units were set to retire next year, and it is owned by NRG Energy in Houston. When market conditions made it profitable to keep operating, that strategy changed. Matt Pistner, senior vice president of generation at NRG, said, “We think there’s an economic reason to keep them around, so we took back the retirement notice.”
This choice is in line with a larger tendency across the country. Dozens of oil, gas, and coal-fired plants in PJM’s area that were supposed to close have put off or cancelled their retirement plans. A lot of these facilities are peaker units, which are made to be flexible instead than efficient. When demand suddenly goes up, like it does now with data centres that need a lot of energy all the time, they may swiftly scale up power generation.
But bringing back peaker plants has major effects. Baseload power plants that run all the time are usually newer and more efficient than these facilities. They put out more pollutants for every unit of electricity they make when they are running. For people who live near them, this is not simply a philosophical worry; it is a real problem that affects air quality, public health, and environmental justice.
This conflict is very obvious at the Fisk site itself. It is on property that used to have a coal-fired power plant that ran for more than a hundred years. After years of protests and organising by people in the area, the coal plant closed down over ten years ago. This was a hard-won success for the neighbourhood. The only things left were the peaking units, which ran on petroleum oil and only sporadically. Because they weren’t used very often, many people were okay with them. They were a compromise between grid reliability and environmental impact.
As these peakers are used more often, previous worries are coming back. Many of these factories are in low-income or minority neighbourhoods, which have historically had more than their fair share of industrial pollution. The increased reliance on peakers raises unpleasant issues about who pays the price for the digital economy’s expansion and whether the benefits of AI are being built on environmental trade-offs absorbed by vulnerable people.
From the point of view of the energy system, the issue shows how hard it is to switch to cleaner power while meeting rising demand. Wind and solar power are still growing, but they need storage and infrastructure upgrades to provide AI data centres with the steady, on-demand electricity they need. Grid operators are relying on what they know will work right away, even if it goes against long-term climate goals, before those technologies are fully in place.
Experts in the field agree that peaker plants are not the best answer. They cost a lot to run, don’t work well, and pollute the air. But when the grid is under stress, their ability to keep the lights on is strategically important. When a system is under stress, reliability generally comes above ideals, at least for a short time.
The return of peakers also shows how swiftly changes in technology may affect infrastructure that was designed decades ago. People typically talk about AI in terms of algorithms and data, but it has very real effects. It needs a lot of acreage, water to cool it down, and a lot of electricity. Every new data centre links the past of fossil-fueled power generation to the future of computing.
This makes it hard for policymakers and regulators to find the right balance. The economic benefits of AI and the need for grid stability cannot be overlooked. On the other hand, keeping high-pollution plants running longer could make climate promises less effective and make health problems worse. The choices made now could affect the environment in your area and the country’s energy policy for a long time.
People who live near factories like Fisk are paying close attention. For them, the restoration of smokestacks isn’t just a theoretical issue; it’s a matter of daily living and long-term health. Their experience highlights a general truism about energy transitions: progress is rarely straight, and improvements in one area might bring up problems that haven’t been handled in another.
