U.S. power consumption will rise to record highs in 2025 and 2026, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its Short Term Energy Outlook on Tuesday.
With growing demand from data centers dedicated to artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency and with homes and businesses using more electricity for heat and transportation, EIA projected power demand will rise to 4,179 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) in 2025 and 4,239 billion kWh in 2026, up from a record 4,082 billion kWh in 2024.
EIA forecast 2025 power sales will rise to 1,524 billion kWh for residential consumers, 1,458 billion kWh for commercial customers and 1,054 billion kWh for industrial customers.
Those forecasts compare to all-time highs of 1,509 billion kWh for residential consumers in 2022, 1,421 billion kWh in 2024 for commercial customers and 1,064 billion kWh in 2000 for industrial customers.
EIA said natural gas’ share of power generation would slide from 43% in 2024 to 40% in 2025 and 39% in 2026. Coal’s share will ease from 16% in 2024 and 2025 to 15% in 2026, as renewable output rises.
The percentage of renewable generation will rise from 23% in 2024 to 25% in 2025 and 27% in 2026, while nuclear power’s share will hold at the 2024 level of 19% in 2025 and 2026, according to the outlook.
EIA projected gas sales in 2025 would rise to 13.1 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) for residential consumers and 9.7 bcfd for commercial customers, but fall to 23.1 bcfd for industrial customers and 35.7 bcfd for power generation.
That compares with all-time highs of 14.3 bcfd in 1996 for residential consumers, 9.6 bcfd in 2019 for commercial customers, 23.8 bcfd in 1973 for industrial customers and 36.9 bcfd in 2024 for power generation.
(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Chris Reese)