US electricity demand is expected to grow by up to 5% annually by 2028, with growth reaching 10% or more in areas experiencing a rapid expansion of data centres, according to new analysis from Bain & Company.
The consultancy said the growth is creating new pressures for utilities, with customer electricity bills expected to rise by 5 – 8% annually by 2045, compared with increases of 1%–3% in previous years.
At the same time, utility earnings per share are expected to grow by around 5%–8% annually. This means utilities may need to significantly improve the productivity of their operations, maintenance and capital spending – while ensuring that large new customers pay the full cost of the infrastructure needed to serve them.
Bain estimates that around $5 trillion (£3.79 trillion) – $6.5 trillion (£4.93 trillion) will need to be spent globally to build nearly 150GW of new compute capacity by 2030, which would almost triple global capacity in five years.
The report also estimates that adding new grid capacity can take more than four years, while constructing a 1GW data centre can take between one and four years even where power infrastructure is already available.
A wider market picture shows just how quickly the US power system is entering a period of sustained demand growth – the US Energy Information Administration expects electricity sales to reach a record 4,135TWh in 2026 and 4,211TWh in 2027, with data centre development and manufacturing among the main drivers.
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