Commercial electricity sales in Virginia rose by nearly 30 million megawatthours between 2019 and 2025, according to analysis published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration on May 5, 2026. Only Texas, a far larger state, added more. EIA attributes most of the growth to data centers, with electric vehicle adoption and building electrification contributing.

The chart shows commercial electricity sales by state and places Virginia among the fastest-growing commercial markets in the country. Northern Virginia hosts the largest concentration of data centers in the world, and the load growth appears in the grid data for the Dominion zone of PJM Interconnection.

Key figures from the EIA analysis:

- Summer peak load in the Dominion zone reached 23,905 MW in 2025, 23% higher than in 2019. - Winter peak load reached 25,413 MW in the 2025-26 season, 45% higher than in 2019-20. - Of the 50 highest hourly loads in the zone between 2019 and 2025, 47 occurred in 2024 (15) or 2025 (32). - PJM's 2026 load forecast projects summer peak load growth of about 5.4% per year over the next 10 years, down from 6.3% in the 2025 forecast.

PJM expects the Dominion zone to see the largest absolute increase in summer peak demand from 2026 through 2030. Utilities and market participants are managing peak demand through demand response, energy storage, facility upgrades and infrastructure investment.

EIA drew the data from its Form EIA-861 and EIA-861M surveys, the Hourly Electric Grid Monitor (Form EIA-930) and PJM's 2026 Load Forecast Report.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration - https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67664