Global electricity consumption by data centers is projected to reach 1,000 terawatt-hours by 2026, double the approximately 500 terawatt-hours consumed in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency. The doubling of data center energy demand within four years represents one of the fastest load growth trajectories ever recorded for a single commercial sector.

US data centers account for the largest national share of the global figure. The IEA estimates that US data center electricity consumption will reach 260 to 280 TWh in 2026, representing approximately 6% to 7% of total US electricity generation. That share was below 2% in 2015, reflecting the compound effect of cloud computing growth, streaming media expansion, and since 2023, the sharp increase in energy-intensive AI inference workloads.

AI-specific workloads are the fastest-growing component of data center energy demand. Training large language models and running inference at scale require substantially higher compute density per rack than traditional web serving or database workloads, with AI-optimized compute clusters drawing five to ten times the power per square foot of conventional data center space.

US utilities in the Southeast have filed revised integrated resource plans with state regulators projecting significantly higher commercial load growth through 2030. Georgia Power's most recent IRP projects an additional 7,100 megawatts of peak load capacity requirement by 2030, a substantial portion attributed to commercial and data center customers.

Source: International Energy Agency -- https://www.iea.org/reports/electricity-2024/executive-summary