Electricity demand from data centers is reshaping U.S. power planning in 2026, as the combination of AI workloads, new construction, and aging grid infrastructure pushes load forecasts sharply higher. Industry projections put U.S. data center demand at 75.8 gigawatts for IT equipment, cooling, and related uses in 2026, with estimates rising to 108 gigawatts by 2028 and 134.4 gigawatts by 2030.
The pace of growth has caught utilities and regulators off guard. Grid Strategies found that the total of five-year future summer peak demand growth forecasts published by utilities jumped from 38 gigawatts in 2023 to 128 gigawatts in 2024, a leap driven largely by data center interconnection requests. S&P Global has projected data center grid-power demand rising about 22 percent in a single year and nearly tripling by the end of the decade.
The strain is concentrated in a few states. Virginia, the largest market, was forecast to reach roughly 12.1 gigawatts of data center grid demand in 2025, up from 9.3 gigawatts a year earlier, while Texas was projected near 9.7 gigawatts. Across the country, more than 4,500 active facilities already consume an estimated 176 terawatt-hours annually, about 4.4 percent of U.S. electricity, with hundreds more under construction.
The challenge for the power system is matching that demand with new generation and transmission. Regulators face a backlog of interconnection requests, and the EIA trimmed its 2026 generation forecast even as load projections climbed, underscoring the gap between rising demand and available supply.
Source: Utility Dive - https://www.utilitydive.com/news/energy-short-term-outlook-2026-load-demand-data-centers/807530/