Data Center Power: How Much, and Where It Comes From

Data centers are now a measurable slice of the world's electricity — and the AI build-out is the fastest-growing demand the grid has seen in decades. The real numbers, sourced from the International Energy Agency.

The headline numbers

The IEA's "Energy & AI" analysis puts global data centre electricity consumption at about 415 TWh in 2024 — roughly 1.5% of all electricity used on Earth — with the United States accounting for 45% of it. Consumption has grown about 12% per year since 2017, four times faster than total electricity demand. By 2030 the IEA projects it will more than double to about 945 TWh — approximately Japan's entire annual electricity consumption — with AI as the single biggest driver. In the US, data centres are projected to account for nearly half of all electricity-demand growth through 2030.

Inside the building: how the power chain works

• Grid feed — large campuses connect at transmission voltage, often with their own substations measured in hundreds of megawatts.
• UPS — uninterruptible power supplies (battery banks) bridge the seconds between a grid failure and generators taking over.
• Generators — on-site diesel or gas units sized to run the entire facility.
• Distribution — switchgear steps power down to PDUs that feed each rack. Every stage loses a little energy — losses that show up in PUE.

Why campuses cluster near cheap power

Electricity is the largest operating cost of a data center, so the AI build-out follows the megawatts: hydro in Quebec and the Pacific Northwest, gas and wind in Texas, nuclear-adjacent sites in the Midwest. That's visible on our facility map — the clusters sit exactly where power is cheap and reliable.

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