BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 25. Total US electricity demand, which has hovered around 4,000 terawatt-hours (TWh) since 2010, is on the brink of a significant increase due to accelerating electrification, says Rystad Energy in its recent research, Trend reports.
The expansion of data centers and the rising adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) are poised to drive this surge, with Rystad Energy predicting these two sectors will contribute an additional 290 TWh of demand by 2030.
The anticipated rise in electricity demand from data centers will be largely fueled by those dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI), which consumes more electricity than traditional computing. The combined growth of traditional and AI data centers, along with chip foundries, is expected to boost demand by 177 TWh from 2023 to 2030, reaching a total of 307 TWh.
While data centers currently account for a small fraction of the total US electricity demand, this projection represents more than a twofold increase from 2023 levels, which stood at 130 TWh. This growth underscores the US's ambition to establish itself as a global data center hub.
Meanwhile, electric vehicles will be the second major driver of electricity demand growth in the US through 2030, Rystad Energy expects. In 2023, the transportation sector's electricity consumption was 18.3 TWh, but this is forecasted to leap to 131 TWh by 2030, primarily due to the proliferation of battery electric vehicles (BEVs).
Concurrently, Rystad Energy forecasts that total US power demand across residential, commercial, and industrial sectors will rise by 175 TWh between 2023 and 2030, pushing the country's overall demand close to 4,500 TWh. To support this increasing demand, renewable energy capacity continues to expand robustly, bolstered by incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).