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POWER USE · UNITED STATES · UPDATED SEPTEMBER 13, 2026

US data-center electricity use

US data centers used 176 TWh of electricity in 2023, about 4.4% of total US electricity, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. That was triple the 58 TWh of 2014. Berkeley Lab estimates 325–580 TWh by 2028, or 6.7%–12% of US electricity.

Aerial view of large, flat-roofed data-center buildings among roads and other commercial buildings near Ashburn, Virginia
Data centers near Ashburn in Loudoun County, Virginia. Photo: Theodore Christopher, CC0 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
US data-center electricity consumptionTerawatt-hours per year. 2028 shows the low and high ends of Berkeley Lab’s scenario range.
Show the numbers
PERIODUS DATA-CENTER ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION (TWh)
201458
2023176
2028 low (projection)325
2028 high (projection)580

Source: Berkeley Lab ↗. Berkeley Lab publishes 2014 and 2023 as estimates and 2028 as a range, not a single value.

Consumption rose about 203% between 2014 and 2023 (calculated). Berkeley Lab says data-center power demand more than doubled between 2017 and 2023, largely because of the growth in AI servers. The IEA expects data centers to account for nearly half of US electricity demand growth between now and 2030, and per-person data-center consumption to grow from around 540 kWh in 2024 to over 1,200 kWh by the end of the decade.

Which states use the most?

Data-center load is concentrated. EPRI’s 2024 report found that 15 states account for 80% of US data-center load. The chart ranks those 15 by data centers’ share of each state’s electricity consumption.

Data centers’ share of state electricity consumption, 2023EPRI estimates for the 15 states with the most data-center load. Total data-center use in brackets.
  1. Virginia25.6% (33.9 TWh)
  2. North Dakota15.4% (3.9 TWh)
  3. Nebraska11.7% (4.0 TWh)
  4. Iowa11.4% (6.2 TWh)
  5. Oregon11.4% (6.4 TWh)
  6. Nevada8.7% (3.4 TWh)
  7. Arizona7.4% (6.3 TWh)
  8. Washington5.7% (5.2 TWh)
  9. Illinois5.5% (7.5 TWh)
  10. New Jersey5.4% (4.0 TWh)
  11. Texas4.6% (21.8 TWh)
  12. Georgia4.3% (6.2 TWh)
  13. California3.7% (9.3 TWh)
  14. Pennsylvania3.2% (4.6 TWh)
  15. New York2.8% (4.1 TWh)

Source: EPRI ↗. EPRI Table 2, 2023 load columns. These are estimates, not metered totals.

Virginia: a quarter of the state’s electricity

The aerial photo at the top of this page shows data centers near Ashburn, in Loudoun County, Northern Virginia. EPRI estimated that data centers used 33.9 TWh in Virginia in 2023, 25.6% of the state’s electricity consumption. Texas had the second-largest data-center load at 21.8 TWh, but that was only 4.6% of its much larger electricity use.

States with much less data-center load can still have high shares: North Dakota (15.4%), Nebraska (11.7%), Iowa (11.4%) and Oregon (11.4%).

High-voltage electrical substation with a data-center building behind it in The Dalles, Oregon
Google's data center in The Dalles, Oregon, behind high-voltage electrical equipment (2011). Photo: Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

National outlook to 2030

Estimates differ by method and scope. EPRI’s 2024 scenarios put US data centers at 4.6%–9.1% of US electricity generation by 2030, against an estimated 4% when the report was published. Berkeley Lab’s later report puts 2028 at 6.7%–12% of US electricity. The two studies should not be merged into one series.

US data centers on the map

Our map currently holds 1,774 mapped data-center records in the United States, mostly from OpenStreetMap. That is a mapping count, not a census: records can be single buildings or whole campuses, and coverage is uneven.

Explore US data centers on the map ↗ Browse the US directory →

Frequently asked questions

How much electricity do US data centers use?

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates that US data centers used 176 TWh in 2023, about 4.4% of total US electricity, up from 58 TWh in 2014.

How much electricity will US data centers use in 2028?

Berkeley Lab’s 2024 report estimates between 325 and 580 TWh by 2028, or 6.7% to 12% of total US electricity. The range reflects different scenarios, not a single forecast.

Which US state uses the most electricity for data centers?

Virginia. EPRI estimated its data centers used 33.9 TWh in 2023, 25.6% of the state’s electricity consumption, the highest share of the 15 largest data-center states.

What share of global data-center electricity does the US use?

The IEA estimates that the United States accounted for 45% of global data-centre electricity consumption in 2024, the largest share of any country.

Sources

  1. Berkeley Lab (2024), United States Data Center Energy Usage Report. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy, 2024-12-20.
  2. EPRI (2024), Powering Intelligence, Table 2 (PDF page 13). Electric Power Research Institute, 2024-05.
  3. IEA (2025), Energy and AI — Executive summary. International Energy Agency, 2025. CC BY 4.0.
  4. IEA (2025), Energy and AI — Energy demand from AI. International Energy Agency, 2025. CC BY 4.0.

Figures are quoted in their publishers’ units and scope. World, national, state, company and campus figures overlap and are never added together. Projections are labeled as projections; percentage changes marked “calculated” are simple arithmetic on the published values. All sources retrieved 13 September 2026. Methodology