The electricity appetite of US data centers is rising fast enough to reshape grid planning across much of the country. Data center power demand is projected to climb from 31 gigawatts in 2025 to 41 gigawatts in 2026, and to 66 gigawatts the year after, according to figures cited in Goldman Sachs research. The sector's share of total peak summer power demand is expected to rise from 4.1 percent in 2025 to 5.3 percent in 2026.
The scale of that load creates challenges for utilities. Data centers can strain regional grids because of steep increases in load size, they often face geographic constraints tied to latency requirements, and they generally need firm power sources that can run continuously. Those characteristics make the new demand harder to serve than a comparable amount of dispersed residential or commercial growth.
Reliability risks are concentrated in specific markets. Planned generation additions look limited relative to incoming data center demand in the Mid-Atlantic, Mid-Continent, and Northwest, raising the prospect of tighter reserve margins in those regions. More than 4,500 US data centers already consume about 176 terawatt-hours annually, roughly 4.4 percent of national electricity, with over 700 more under construction across 38 states.
The broader picture shows overall US electricity demand rising from a record 4,097 billion kilowatt-hours in 2024 toward about 4,250 billion kilowatt-hours in 2026, setting consecutive record highs.
Source: Goldman Sachs - https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/us-data-center-power-demand-projected-to-double-by-2027