Data-centre development is now the main driver of new US electricity demand, and the EIA's September 2026 Short-Term Energy Outlook forecasts US electricity generation climbing 2.2% in 2026 to a record, before rising a further 1.7% in 2027, to 4,368 billion kilowatt-hours of US electricity generation in 2026
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects US electricity generation to increase by 2.2% in 2026, reaching a record 4,368 billion kilowatt-hours. This forecast, from the September 2026 Short-Term Energy Outlook, also projects a further 1.7% growth in 2027. The EIA notes that electricity generation is rising to meet additional demand, particularly from data center development and increased manufacturing activity.
Verified 2026-09-10
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Data centres are now the main reason the US needs more electricity, which matters to power companies and grid planners.
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- American Electric Power, one of the largest US utilities, which counts hyperscalers and manufacturers among its new large customers, signed fresh load commitments in the third quarter of 2026 and now expects its contracted extra load to reach 84 GW by 2031 AEP signed 15 GW of new load commitments in a single quarter
- AI data centres worldwide reached a power capacity comparable to New York State at peak demand in 2025, which Stanford's AI Index puts at 29.6 gigawatts
- OpenAI does not disclose GPT-4o's resource footprint, so Stanford's 2026 AI Index Report turned to independent researchers' estimates of the water needed to cool the servers behind it — as much as 1.58 million kilolitres a year — more than 1.2 million people drink annually
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