Global electricity consumption by data centers is on track to more than double by the end of the decade, according to International Energy Agency analysis, with artificial intelligence identified as the single most important driver of the increase. The findings frame data centers as one of the fastest-rising sources of electricity demand worldwide.

Data centers accounted for around 1.5 percent of the world's electricity consumption in 2024, or about 415 terawatt-hours. From 2024 to 2030, that consumption is projected to grow by roughly 15 percent per year, more than four times faster than the growth of total electricity demand from all other sectors combined. By 2030, data center electricity use is expected to reach around 945 terawatt-hours, representing just under 3 percent of total global electricity consumption.

The trajectory reflects a sharp acceleration from the past decade. Data center electricity usage climbed from about 58 terawatt-hours in 2014 to 176 terawatt-hours in 2023, and the pace has quickened as AI training and inference workloads scale. The agency attributes the surge primarily to AI, alongside continued growth in cloud computing and other digital services.

The United States sits at the center of the trend, hosting a large share of global capacity and much of the new AI-driven construction. The concentration of demand growth in a relatively small number of computing facilities raises questions for power systems about how to add generation and transmission fast enough to match a load that is expanding far more quickly than historical norms, without shifting costs onto other electricity users.

Source: International Energy Agency -- https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-and-ai/energy-demand-from-ai