U.S. electricity use will set new records this year and next, the Energy Information Administration said in its Short-Term Energy Outlook released on 6 October. As reported by Reuters, the agency expects consumption to rise from a record 4,195 billion kWh in 2025 to 4,288 billion kWh in 2026 and 4,356 billion kWh in 2027. Most of the growth, it says, comes from data centers built for artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, with more electric heating and transport adding to it.
In the outlook itself the EIA notes that consumption across the country in the third quarter of 2026 was 4 % higher than a year earlier. It expects demand in the commercial sector, where data centers are counted, to keep rising through 2027 by 2.8 % a year, and industrial demand to rise by 2.7 %, while residential use stays roughly flat.
Prices Move Before The Plants Do
The EIA puts the average U.S. wholesale power price at $52 per MWh in 2026, 11 % above 2025. The regional spread is wide. In the PJM area of the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, wholesale prices are forecast to rise 41 %, while the Mid-Columbia hub in the Pacific Northwest is expected to fall 23 %.
Natural gas keeps about 40 % of U.S. generation in the forecast and nuclear 18 %. Renewables grow from 24 % in 2025 to 27 % in 2027, and coal falls from 17 % to 15 %. The agency expects power generation to burn 37.0 billion cubic feet of gas a day in 2026.
What This Means On Site
A grid running closer to its limits on the hottest and coldest days is the background to the many on-site plants announced this autumn, such as the 282 MW engine plant Wärtsilä will supply to a U.S. data center. It also changes the role of the standby genset. Where utilities ask large loads to step off the grid during peaks, the backup sets run more hours, in exactly the weather that is hardest on them: heat waves for the cooling system, cold snaps for starting and fuel.
A standby plant specified for a few test runs a month and the occasional outage may now be asked to carry the site for many hours at the hottest point of the year. If that is the plan, it belongs in the specification, including the ambient temperature the genset cooling must hold full load at.
Sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Reuters via Carrier Management, Reuters via BOE Report
