Electricity consumption for data centres worldwide is projected to grow 26% in 2026, according to Gartner, increasing from 447 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2025 to 565TWh this year.
“Surging demand for compute-intensive AI workloads is driving unprecedented data centre power growth while AI capacity is now constrained by power availability, making data centre power security the new battleground for scaling and protecting margins in the global AI race,” says Linglan Wang, director analyst at Gartner.
Worldwide data centre power demand is expected to rise 27% in 2026 and reach 132 gigawatts (GW), up from 104GW in 2025. It is estimated to attain 290GW by 2030, which reflects the unprecedented scale and pace of GenAI boosting demand.
AI-optimised servers continue to fuel the increase in data centre power consumption. Gartner estimates AI-optimised server adoption will account for 31% of data centre power consumption in 2026 – and that by 2027 their power consumption will surpass that of conventional servers.
With data centre power electricity consumption estimated to reach over 1,200TWh by 2030, grid supply will be insufficient to meet the demands of future data centre construction, affecting all data centre users.
“Infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders must prioritise efficiency upgrades and secure grid access,” says Wang. “They also need to invest in high-efficiency cooling systems and edge computing to mitigate power constraints and ensure sustainable, scalable growth.”