The United States added electricity demand at a faster pace in 2025 than at any point in the past decade, and data centers are now the single largest reason. US electricity demand rose 2.1 percent in 2025 and is projected to grow by nearly 2 percent annually through 2030, with roughly half of that total increase tied directly to data center expansion, according to the International Energy Agency.
The strain is showing up fastest in facilities built for artificial intelligence. Global electricity demand from data centers climbed 17 percent in 2025, while consumption at AI-focused facilities alone surged 50 percent, both far outpacing the roughly 3 percent growth rate for global electricity demand overall. Worldwide electricity use tied to data centers is projected to roughly double by 2030, reaching close to 945 terawatt-hours and accounting for just under 3 percent of all global electricity consumption.
Grid capacity has not kept pace with that growth. More than 2,500 gigawatts of proposed power projects, including data centers, renewables and storage, are currently stuck in interconnection queues worldwide as operators wait years for approval. The IEA estimates that meeting forecast electricity demand through 2030 will require annual global grid investment to rise by roughly 50 percent above today's baseline of 400 billion dollars a year, alongside a broader expansion of transmission supply chains.
Source: IEA - https://www.iea.org/reports/electricity-2026/executive-summary