World Resources Institute analysis highlights how quickly US data centers have moved from a minor load to a major factor in national electricity planning. The data focuses specifically on the US share of power consumption and the difficulty of forecasting it.

US data centers have accounted for roughly 176 terawatt-hours of electricity, about 4.4 percent of national power consumption, a share that is climbing as AI workloads expand. Projections show US data center demand rising toward about 75.8 gigawatts of capacity by 2026 and making up close to half of all US power demand growth through 2030. The analysis emphasizes that demand estimates carry wide uncertainty because they depend on assumptions about AI adoption, chip efficiency, and utilization.

That uncertainty complicates utility planning, since overbuilding generation risks stranded costs while underbuilding risks shortages and price spikes. The institute notes that data centers can come online faster than the grid can add capacity, which concentrates stress in specific regions rather than spreading it evenly. For US policymakers and utilities, the figures frame data center electricity demand as one of the defining grid challenges of the decade.

Source: World Resources Institute - https://www.wri.org/insights/us-data-centers-electricity-demand