More than 4,500 active data center facilities in the United States now consume about 176 terawatt-hours of electricity a year, equal to roughly 4.4 percent of national power use, according to the World Resources Institute. Another 700 or more facilities are under construction across 38 states, signaling further increases ahead.

The near-term outlook calls for continued acceleration. US data center demand is projected to reach about 75.8 gigawatts in 2026 for information technology equipment, cooling, lighting, and related uses. The share of data centers in total peak summer power demand is forecast to rise from 4.1 percent in 2025 to 5.3 percent in 2026.

Longer-term estimates point higher still. The Electric Power Research Institute projects that data centers could consume up to 9 percent of US electricity generation annually by 2030, up from about 4 percent of total load in 2023. Total US generation is expected to reach roughly 4,400 terawatt-hours in 2026, with the potential to climb toward 5,200 terawatt-hours by 2030.

The figures underscore the speed at which computing load is reshaping the power system. Forecasting that demand has proven difficult, because announced projects do not always proceed on schedule, leaving utilities to plan for a wide range of possible outcomes as they commit to new generation and transmission.

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