US data center electricity demand is on track to climb sharply over the next decade, raising hard questions for utilities and grid operators. BloombergNEF projects that data center power demand in the United States could reach 106 gigawatts by 2035, a level that would require major additions of generation and transmission capacity.
The load growth is already reshaping utility planning. 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 sign of how quickly expectations have shifted. In the PJM region alone, BloombergNEF estimates data centers could add 31 gigawatts of load over the next five years, roughly 3 gigawatts more than expected capacity additions from new generation.
Reliability concerns are mounting. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation has warned of elevated risk of summer electricity shortfalls across multiple regions in 2026 and beyond. A 2024 voltage fluctuation in northern Virginia caused the simultaneous disconnection of 60 data centers, creating a 1,500 megawatt power surplus that forced emergency adjustments to prevent cascading problems.
The strain is also reaching consumers. In Virginia, where data centers consume more than one in four kilowatt-hours of state electricity, Dominion proposed its first base-rate increase since 1992, adding several dollars per month to typical household bills. Utilities now face the task of serving dense, continuous data center loads while maintaining reliability and managing cost impacts for other customers.
Source: Utility Dive - https://www.utilitydive.com/news/us-data-center-power-demand-could-reach-106-gw-by-2035-bloombergnef/806972/