Texas grid planners have reduced their peak power demand forecast following a slowdown in data center interconnection requests, a change that stands out against a national picture of accelerating load growth. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas had projected in April that peak demand could exceed 367 gigawatts by 2032, with data centers accounting for more than 60 percent of the increase.
The national trajectory has held firm. Gartner projects data center electricity consumption growing 26 percent during 2026, and worldwide consumption is forecast to reach 565 terawatt hours this year against 447 terawatt hours in 2025. Goldman Sachs Research puts US data center power demand at 41 gigawatts in 2026, up from 31 gigawatts in 2025, and models 66 gigawatts for 2027. By 2027 US data centers are expected to consume 8.5 percent of total peak summer power demand, roughly double the 4.1 percent share recorded in 2025.
Delivery is the constraint. Goldman Sachs estimates that only 50 to 60 percent of data center capacity scheduled for the next one to two years will come online on schedule, with interconnection queues, transformer lead times and transmission construction setting the pace.
Price signals have followed. Midwest wholesale electricity prices moved above 500 dollars per megawatt hour during August as heat and weak wind output tightened supply. Utilities across several regions are rewriting capital plans and grid designs in response, and federal regulators have pushed grid operators toward faster interconnection processes for large loads.
Source: EnergyConnects - https://www.energyconnects.com/news/utilities/2026/august/texas-power-demand-forecast-trimmed-after-data-center-pause/