Do Data Centers Raise Electricity Bills?
Key takeaways
- A data center does not automatically raise every household bill, but the grid upgrades that serve large new loads can be socialized unless regulators assign those costs to the large customer.
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimated U.S. data center electricity use at 192 terawatt-hours in 2024, about 4.7% of U.S. electricity, with a 2030 Reference Case of 649 terawatt-hours.
- The U.S. Energy Information Administration says data-center demand is a main reason U.S. electricity use is rising again after years of little growth, especially in the ERCOT and PJM regions.
- Virginia’s State Corporation Commission created a large-load rate class for customers demanding 25 megawatts or more, with minimum demand charges intended to insulate other customers from some build-out costs.
- Local outcomes depend on the utility, the tariff, and who pays for substations and transmission—not on a single national percentage.
Last reviewed: November 9, 2026. This page explains mechanisms and cites official studies. It does not forecast your bill and is not financial advice.
Do data centers raise electricity bills?
Data centers can contribute to higher household electricity bills when the cost of new generation, transmission, or distribution needed to serve them is recovered from a broader group of customers, rather than from the large-load customer alone.
That is a cost-allocation question, not a simple yes-or-no fact about every town. If a utility builds a substation or a transmission line mainly because a campus requested hundreds of megawatts, regulators decide how much of that investment the campus must cover up front or through a special tariff, and how much is spread across residential and small-business rates. Household bills also move for reasons that have nothing to do with data centers, including fuel costs, weather, and replacement of aging equipment.
If you are asking about a specific proposal, the useful documents are the utility’s large-load tariff, any state commission case, and the interconnection or line-extension agreement—not a national headline.
How much electricity do US data centers use?
U.S. data centers used an estimated 192 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2024, or about 4.7% of total U.S. electricity consumption, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s 2025 update.
That update revises the laboratory’s December 2024 report to Congress, which had estimated 176 terawatt-hours in 2023 (about 4.4% of U.S. electricity) and 58 terawatt-hours in 2014. The 2025 paper puts 2024 at the low end of the earlier report’s range, mainly because later shipment data showed fewer graphics processors in 2023 and 2024 and because assumptions about AI inference servers were revised. Cryptocurrency mining is outside the scope of both LBNL reports.
| Source and what it measures | Recent estimate | Later outlook | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| LBNL 2024 report (Shehabi et al., December 2024) | 176 TWh in 2023; about 4.4% of U.S. electricity | 325–580 TWh by 2028 (about 6.7–12% of U.S. electricity) | Bottom-up model from IT equipment shipments; requested by the Energy Act of 2020 |
| LBNL 2025 update (Smith et al., June 2026) | 192 TWh in 2024; about 4.7% of U.S. electricity | Reference Case 649 TWh in 2030 (about 11.8%); uncertainty range 521–843 TWh (9.5–15.3%) | Same method, updated through late 2025; Reference Case 2028 figure is 464 TWh |
| EPRI Powering Intelligence 2026 | About 177–192 TWh in 2024; about 4–5% of U.S. electricity | About 380–790 TWh by 2030; about 9–17% of U.S. electricity | Built from project-development data; includes cryptocurrency mining, which LBNL excludes |
The LBNL 2025 update also estimates that, if North American Electric Reliability Corporation load forecasts already include data-center use consistent with the study, data centers would account for about 33% of U.S. electricity load growth from 2024 to 2030. The International Energy Agency’s April 2025 Energy and AI report likewise finds that the United States accounted for about 45% of global data-center electricity use in 2024 and that data centers account for nearly half of U.S. electricity demand growth to 2030 in its analysis.
These are national or modeled figures. A rural county with one campus and a small utility can feel a much larger local share than the U.S. average.
Why can a new facility affect household rates?
A new facility can affect household rates because electric utilities generally recover the cost of wires, transformers, and power plants through regulated charges paid by many customers, unless a commission requires the large customer to bear more of those costs.
EPRI’s 2026 summary describes the timing mismatch: a data center can request service on a timeline of a few years, while neighborhoods and major grid projects are planned over a longer period. When many large loads cluster in one region, the utility may need new generation or higher-voltage lines. If those investments are put into the general rate base, households can pay part of the bill even if they never use the campus.
Capacity markets and wholesale prices can transmit the same pressure. The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s March 12, 2026 analysis found that faster-than-expected demand growth, with generating capacity held to the baseline forecast, would raise wholesale prices most sharply in ERCOT (most of Texas), which has limited ties to neighboring grids. EIA’s modeled effect in the Mid-Atlantic PJM region was smaller because that grid can draw on a wider set of plants.
None of that tells you what will happen on your monthly statement. It tells you which questions to ask: who requested the load, which upgrades are planned, and which tariff applies.
What are regulators doing about large loads?
Some state regulators are creating separate rate classes and minimum-demand charges so that large customers pay for more of the capacity they reserve, even if they do not use it every hour.
Virginia’s State Corporation Commission did that in Dominion Energy Virginia’s 2025 biennial review. In a November 25, 2025 order (case PUR-2025-00058), the Commission approved a new GS-5 rate class for customers demanding 25 megawatts or more, including data centers, effective January 1, 2027. To help insulate other ratepayers from infrastructure costs tied to that build-out, certain large-scale customers must pay a minimum of 85% of contracted distribution and transmission demand and 60% of generation demand, among other requirements. The Commission also approved a smaller base-rate increase than Dominion had requested.
That order is one state’s answer for one utility. Other states use different tools, or have not yet changed their tariffs. A resident outside Dominion’s service territory should look up their own commission docket rather than assuming Virginia’s class applies.
Which parts of the country are seeing the fastest related load growth?
The fastest near-term electricity load growth tied to data centers is expected in the ERCOT region, covering most of Texas, and in PJM, which covers all or part of 13 states plus Washington, D.C.
EIA’s February 2026 Short-Term Energy Outlook, discussed in the same March 2026 note, forecast average annual load growth of about 10% in ERCOT and about 3% in PJM between 2025 and 2027. EIA also pointed to data-center growth in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator and Southwest Power Pool regions and, after 2027, in Arizona and Nevada. Between 2020 and 2025, U.S. electricity demand grew about 1.7% a year, compared with about 0.1% a year between 2005 and 2019.
EPRI’s 2026 state-level work finds wide local differences. In that analysis, Virginia is today the only state where data centers consume more than 20% of in-state electricity; EPRI’s scenarios put Virginia’s share at 39% to 57% by 2030. In EPRI’s Medium scenario, Oregon, Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, and Indiana could also exceed a 20% share by 2030. Those projections include cryptocurrency mining and depend on how many announced projects are actually built.
For place-specific context, see data centers in Texas and Loudoun County, Virginia. For cooling-related water, which is a separate resource, see data center water usage.
What are the most common questions about data centers and electric bills?
Will my household bill go up if a data center is proposed nearby?
Not necessarily. A proposal is not an operating load, and even an operating campus affects household rates only if upgrade or power-supply costs are recovered from a broader customer class. Ask the utility and the public utilities commission who pays.
Are announced megawatts the same as power the grid must supply tomorrow?
No. EPRI cautions that announced nominal megawatts are a pipeline indicator, not a near-term peak forecast. Utilization, ramp-up, on-site generation, and canceled projects all change the load that actually appears.
Do national percentages tell me what will happen in my county?
No. National shares average large states with little development together with a few counties that host clusters. Use the local utility filing and, where one exists, a county page.
Where can I read the underlying studies?
Start with the LBNL 2025 update, the LBNL 2024 report page, EIA’s March 2026 note, and EPRI’s 2026 executive summary.
Is this page telling me whether to support or oppose a project?
No. It describes how costs can move through the electric system so that residents can ask clearer questions. It is not legal, financial, or rate advice.
Sources
- Smith, S.J., et al., United States Data Center Energy Usage Report: 2025 Update, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, June 2026.
- Shehabi, A., et al., 2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, December 19, 2024; summary at Berkeley Lab news, January 17, 2025.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Fossil generation could rise with faster-than-expected growth in data center power demand,” March 12, 2026.
- Electric Power Research Institute, “Powering Intelligence 2026, Executive Summary.”
- International Energy Agency, “Energy and AI, Executive summary,” April 2025.
- Virginia State Corporation Commission, “In Biennial Review Ruling, SCC Creates New Class for Large-Scale Energy Users,” November 25, 2025, case PUR-2025-00058.
This page may be incomplete. It is not affiliated with utilities or data-center operators and is not financial or legal advice. For a facility near you, start at the map or questions to ask.