The Future of Data Centers: Ensuring Power Readiness

While demand for electricity is growing, the largest growth these days tends to be seen in states that have the most new data centers. This has some significant implications for electric utilities.
According to a recent report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), consumption of electricity in the U.S. commercial sector has recovered from pandemic levels with annual U.S. sales of electricity to commercial customers in 2023 totaling 14 billion kilowatt-hours (BkWh’s), which is one percent more than in 2019. However, that growth in commercial demand for electricity is concentrated in a handful of states that are experiencing rapid development of large-scale computing facilities, such as data centers. Electricity demand has grown the most in Virginia, which added 14 BkWh’s, and Texas, which added 13 BkWh’s. “Based on our expectation that regional electricity demand will grow, we revised our forecasts upward for commercial electricity demand through 2025,” said the EIA.