US data center electricity demand is on a steep upward path, according to industry grid analysis. Demand for IT equipment, cooling, lighting, and related uses is projected to reach about 75.8 gigawatts in 2026, then expand to 108 gigawatts in 2028 and 134.4 gigawatts by 2030.

The growth is large enough to move national electricity totals. Total US electricity consumption is forecast to rise from about 4,110 billion kilowatt-hours in 2024 to more than 4,260 billion kilowatt-hours in 2026, with data centers among the leading drivers of the increase. Total power demand is expected to reach record levels in both 2025 and 2026.

The pace of the increase is what sets the current cycle apart. After roughly two decades of flat US electricity demand, the combination of artificial intelligence workloads, cloud computing, and expanding digital services has pushed load growth back onto utility planning agendas. Each new hyperscale campus can require hundreds of megawatts, comparable to the consumption of a mid-sized city.

The figures help explain the rush to secure generation and grid capacity. Utilities, developers, and regulators are using demand projections like these to plan transmission upgrades, new power plants, and interconnection timelines. With data center demand on track to nearly double between 2026 and 2030, the gap between projected load and available supply has become a central question for the US power system over the next several years.

Source: KilowattLogic - https://kilowattlogic.com/news/data-center-electricity-demand-reshaping-grid-2026