More than 4,500 active data centers in the United States now consume roughly 176 terawatt-hours of electricity each year, equal to about 4.4 percent of total national power use, according to federal data tracking the sector's growth. With over 700 additional facilities under construction across 38 states, that footprint is set to expand quickly.

The trajectory is steep. U.S. data center electricity demand has tripled over the past decade and is projected to double again by 2028. For 2026, demand for IT equipment, cooling, lighting, and related uses is expected to reach 75.8 gigawatts. Longer-range estimates suggest data centers could account for up to 9 percent of national electricity generation by 2030, up from about 4 percent of total load in 2023.

The concentration of demand is reshaping how utilities plan. A single large campus can draw as much power as a midsize city, and clusters of facilities in markets like northern Virginia, Texas, and the Southeast are forcing grid operators to rethink generation and transmission investment. Federal analysts describe data center load as the single largest new source of electricity demand growth in the country, a shift driven primarily by the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence computing.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy - https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-releases-new-report-evaluating-increase-electricity-demand-data-centers