(Houston, TX) – Driven by data center development and mass electrification across industries, the current pace of electric demand growth in the United States is unlike anything NextEra Energy president and chief executive officer John Ketchum has ever seen.

“We’re expecting a six-fold increase in power demand over the next 20 years compared to what we saw over the prior 20,” he revealed to a packed room of energy and finance experts at CERAWeek by S&P Global in Houston, Texas, Monday morning.

To meet that demand, Ketchum insists renewable generation needs to be part of the equation, contrasting significantly from sentiments U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright expressed earlier in the day.

“We firmly believe in order to do it, we’re going to have to be able to come up with all-of-the-above energy solutions,” Ketchum quipped. “There’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. We’re going to need all forms of generation- renewables, gas, and nuclear.”

NextEra, which dabbles in everything from transmission to upstream oil and gas pipelines, contracted about 12 gigawatts (GW) of renewables last year. The uniquely diverse energy conglomerate also operates the largest gas-fired generation facility in the United States and is the seventh-largest nuclear operator in the world.

“We get to see it all, and we understand how important this is to our customers,” Ketchum offered.

“The demand is here right now,” he added. “We have to have the generation available to meet that demand. Otherwise, we’re going to have a huge power affordability crisis in this country, with utility bills going through the roof.”

Skyrocketing bills, Ketchum worries, might trigger utility commissions to intervene and demand specific types and timing of generation. That scenario wouldn’t be much fun for anyone, inspiring nearly two dozen Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives to send a letter today asking the Senate not to interfere with the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA’s) clean energy tax credits and threatening to oppose the current budget bill if their request is not met. Its authors and NextEra’s CEO agree that the tax credits and transferability provisions are essential to managing new electric load cost-effectively.

Ketchum, who also serves as chairman of NextEra Energy’s subsidiary, Florida Power & Light Company, told CERAWeek attendees that he sees an incredible growth opportunity to put America first under the Trump administration. His company’s capital investment plans speak to that sentiment, exceeding $120 billion over the next four years, easily making NextEra one of the top infrastructure investors in the United States.

“We are fully behind with this administration,” Ketchum confirmed. “We just need to make sure we (meet demand growth) in a smart way that keeps the bill low, because if we have affordability issues, it’s going to be really tough to meet all that demand that we see coming.”

Keeping electricity prices manageable will depend on the strategic deployment of new generation sources to meet demand. Over the last five years, the United States has installed about 175 GW of renewables, 13 GW of gas, and 3 GW of nuclear, Ketchum shared. NextEra is happy to build any and everything, but the company’s CEO notes there’s a timing difference concerning when varying generation solutions can be brought to market and associated cost discrepancies.

He would know, as no entity has built more gas-fired generation in the U.S. over the last two decades than NextEra has. The company’s last completed facility, a commercial plant in Fort Lauderdale, was brought online in 2022 at the cost of $785 per kilowatt (kW).

“If we wanted to build that same gas-fired combined cycle unit today? $2400 per kW,” estimated Ketchum at CERAWeek. He assessed the cost of gas fire generation to have more than tripled over the last few years, crediting supply constraints (amidst increased demand) and significant qualified labor shortages.

“To get your hands on a gas turbine and to actually get it built across the market, you’re really looking at 2030, or later,” Ketchum confessed.

Plus, lots of the trained workforce that knew how to build gas-fired facilities is gone, having either retired or moved onto other things. Ketchum notes the limited labor available is spread thin, too, building out data centers, constructing LNG terminals, tinkering at chemical companies, and more.

“We have a real shortage of labor supply in this country,” Ketchum reiterated.

The bridge to new nuclear looks to be even longer than the wait time for a gas turbine. NextEra’s CEO expects the United States’ first new reactor will fire up sometime in 2031 or 2032, and the first small modular designs to appear in 2035 or later.

That leaves wind, solar, and batteries, renewable energy workhorses whose contributions have been explicitly minimized by the current administration, including by former fossil fuel executive Wright.

“Renewables are ready to go right now because they’ve been up and running,” Ketchum told the room.

“Don’t get my comments wrong,” he implored. “We are going to need it all.”