Wood Mackenzie’s 2025 analysis looks at how large new loads—especially AI data centers and other hyperscale users—are reshaping US power demand, utility planning, and grid reliability. The authors compile utility commitments to new large-load customers and quantify how these commitments translate into higher long‑term electricity demand and pressure on generation and transmission build‑out.

The report finds that US utilities have already committed to more than 100 GW of new large‑load capacity through the mid‑2030s, with data centers driving most of that growth. These loads are expanding beyond traditional hubs into regions whose grids were not designed for continuous, high‑density digital demand, forcing utilities and regulators to revisit resource adequacy, interconnection queues, and the balance between firm generation, storage, and flexible load.

From Kelvolta’s perspective, this is one of the more sober, data‑driven treatments of US load growth, particularly around data centers. For large behind‑the‑meter (BTM) customers, it confirms that grid‑side solutions alone may not arrive fast enough in many areas, strengthening the case for on‑site assets—such as battery energy storage systems (BESS) and dispatchable generation—to secure firm capacity, manage interconnection risk, and keep long‑term energy costs under control.

Source: Read the full Wood Mackenzie report on how large‑load growth, led by data centers, is reshaping US power markets on woodmac.com.

McKinsey’s 2025 Global Energy Perspective includes a detailed section on US electricity demand, with emphasis on the rapid growth of data center loads and the implications for generation, transmission, and decarbonization pathways. That work has been widely cited in coverage of AI‑driven power demand. McKinsey projects that data centers could account for a double‑digit share of total US electricity consumption by 2030, up from only a few percent in the early 2020s. Their scenarios show US power demand growing materially faster than in previous outlooks, with data centers, industrial electrification, and electric vehicles all contributing, but with data centers leading near‑term revision pressure.

The report emphasizes that this surge will require substantial new generation and grid investment and is likely to keep upward pressure on wholesale prices in certain constrained regions. At the same time, McKinsey’s analysis is careful to frame these numbers as contingent on permitting, interconnection, and siting constraints—not a guaranteed outcome.

Kelvolta reads McKinsey’s work as a useful complement to Wood Mackenzie’s more granular utility‑level data. Together, they paint a picture of sustained structural demand growth that will stress transmission, interconnection timelines, and firm capacity. For large industrial and data center operators, this reinforces the case for planning on‑site solutions early—combining BTM BESS, gas‑fired assets, and demand flexibility—rather than assuming grid capacity will always be available on schedule and at predictable prices.

Source: Read McKinsey’s Global Energy Perspective 2025, including its analysis of US power demand and data center growth, on mckinsey.com.