US data centers forecast to consume 20% of national electricity by 2035, BNEF says
BloombergNEF (BNEF) has sharply raised its forecast for US data center electricity demand, projecting 194 gigawatts (GW) by 2035, an 83% increase from its December estimate. This would represent about 20% of total US power consumption, up from 5.9% today. The surge is driven by AI training and inference workloads, which are expected to account for nearly half of the capacity. BNEF warns that even record grid connection rates sustained through 2035 would leave a 19 GW supply shortfall. Regional impacts are significant: PJM Interconnection, serving Northern Virginia's data center corridor, could see 34% of its electricity go to data centers by 2035, while ERCOT in Texas would reach 22%. The report notes that nearly half of planned data center builds this year may be delayed or canceled due to transformer lead times of up to five years. Other forecasters, including EPRI and S&P, have also raised their estimates significantly.
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