US Power Consumption Set for Record Highs Through 2027 as AI Data Centres Reshape Who Uses Electricity
The Energy Information Administration expects commercial demand to outpace residential power sales for the first time on record in 2026, a flip that captures just how thoroughly data centres are redrawing the American energy map.
U.S. power consumption will keep climbing through 2027, hitting consecutive annual records as artificial intelligence data centres and electrification push demand to levels the grid has never handled before, the Energy Information Administration said in its Short-Term Energy Outlook on Tuesday (Reuters, 2026).
The agency projects power demand will rise from a record 4,195 billion kilowatt-hours in 2025 to 4,269 billion kWh in 2026 and 4,399 billion kWh in 2027. Behind the surge is a structural shift in who is pulling the power. Commercial electricity sales are forecast to reach 1,550 billion kWh in 2026, edging past residential sales of 1,508 billion kWh. That would mark the first time commercial customers have outconsumed households in the history of the data series. Industrial sales are expected to hit 1,065 billion kWh, just above the sector's previous record set all the way back in 2000.
The EIA tied the demand growth directly to data centres running AI and cryptocurrency workloads, alongside more homes and businesses using electricity instead of fossil fuels for heating and transport. Residential power sales actually dipped slightly from their 2025 record, making the commercial sector the clear engine of growth.
On the supply side, the generation mix is shifting but not fast enough to satisfy everyone. Coal's share of power generation is expected to slide from 17% in 2025 to 15% in 2026 and 2027. Natural gas will hold steady at 40% through the forecast period. Renewables are the main gainers, rising from roughly 24% of generation in 2025 to 25% in 2026 and 27% in 2027. Nuclear remains flat at 18%.
Natural gas sales to power generators are projected at 36.6 billion cubic feet per day in 2026, just shy of the 2024 record of 36.8 bcfd, reinforcing that the AI boom is locking in gas demand even as renewables expand their share.
BuiltWorld AI Operational Take: The EIA numbers confirm something that project developers have felt on the ground for two years: the data centre load is no longer a niche industrial category but the primary driver of commercial electricity growth. With gas holding at 40% and coal still exiting, any project that can deliver firm, around-the-clock power to a data centre campus in the 2027-2028 window is looking at a market where demand is climbing faster than dispatchable supply. The bottleneck is no longer the generation technology but the speed of interconnection and construction.