U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright issued an emergency order on September 1, 2026, directing the Orlando Utilities Commission to keep Unit 1 at the Stanton Energy Center in Orlando, Florida, available to operate. Stanton Unit 1 is a coal-fired power plant that had been slated to enter what the Department of Energy called a premature extended cold shutdown in June 2026.
The order takes effect September 2, 2026, and runs through November 30, 2026. A cold shutdown takes a generating unit fully offline rather than holding it in standby, so bringing the unit back online again requires more time than restarting a unit that was only idled.
"Taking reliable generation offline compromises energy reliability and needlessly raises energy costs for Americans," Wright said.
Wright said the administration intends to keep energy affordable and reliable for Florida households. He pointed to DOE's Resource Adequacy Report, which found that power outages could increase by 100 times in 2030 if the United States keeps removing reliable power from the grid. Resource adequacy is the standard grid planners use to measure whether enough generating capacity exists to meet expected demand.
Coal capacity saved nationwide
DOE said more than 17 gigawatts of coal-powered generation were saved from going offline nationwide in 2025, part of what the agency describes as a wider effort to reverse coal plant retirements across the country. The Stanton order applies that same approach to a single unit in Orlando for a defined three-month window rather than canceling its retirement outright.
