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There is no single U.S. electricity price for data centers, and their effect on other customers’ bills depends on where they connect, how they use power, and how local costs are assigned. National electricity prices by customer class show that industrial customers pay less on average than commercial customers, but data centers are not reported as a separate class. To compare data centers fairly with factories or other large loads, separate the customer’s bill from the cost and reliability effects of serving it.
What makes a fair comparison?
Annual electricity use tells you how much energy a facility consumes, but not what it costs to serve. Two facilities using the same number of megawatt-hours can have different bills and grid effects if one draws power steadily and the other creates a sharp peak, or if they connect in different places.
A useful comparison accounts for:
- Annual energy: MWh or TWh consumed over a stated period.
- Peak demand and load shape: The facility’s maximum MW draw, how demand changes by hour, and whether the load can shift or curtail use.
- Location and grid capacity: Available generation, transmission and distribution capacity, interconnection requirements, and the regional market.
- Customer charges: Energy rates, demand or capacity charges, delivery charges, contract terms, and any on-site supply.
- Cost and risk allocation: Who funds new infrastructure, who bears the risk if a project uses less power than forecast, and what protections apply to other customers.
- Reliability and generation: Whether enough resources are available during peak hours and which resources serve the additional load.
Without those details, a comparison of yearly energy totals or average cents per kWh cannot show which facility is cheaper to serve or who ultimately pays for grid investment.
How much electricity do data centers use?
Data-center demand is large and projected to grow, but published estimates depend on the forecast vintage and assumptions. The figures below come from two different analyses and should not be treated as one continuous forecast.
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| Estimate | Electricity use or share | Source and qualification |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 estimate | 176 TWh, about 4.4% of U.S. electricity | U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), 2024, summarizing Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (LBNL) 2024 report. |
| 2028 projection | 325–580 TWh, approximately 6.7%–12% of projected U.S. electricity | DOE, 2024, summarizing LBNL’s 2024 report; a broad projected range, not an observed outcome. |
| 2030 reference case | 11.8% of U.S. electricity | LBNL’s 2025 update, reference-case projection. |
| 2030 scenario range | 9.5%–15.3% of U.S. electricity | LBNL’s 2025 update, range across scenarios. |
The 2028 range and the 2030 figures come from separate forecast vintages, so they are not directly interchangeable. A projected national share also does not reveal how much generation or network capacity will be needed at a particular location or hour.
Do data centers pay more for electricity than factories?
National retail averages do not establish what a data center pays. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports prices by broad customer class; data centers are not a separate category in the figures below.
| Customer class | Average retail price |
|---|---|
| Residential | 17.30¢/kWh |
| Commercial | 13.41¢/kWh |
| Transportation | 13.83¢/kWh |
| Industrial | 8.62¢/kWh |
These are EIA’s preliminary 2025 national averages, published using preliminary February 2026 Electric Power Monthly data. They describe customer classes, not individual facilities or contracts. The industrial average is lower than the commercial average, but it does not show that a data center pays the commercial average—or that it pays more or less than a particular factory.
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EIA notes that industrial customers typically use more electricity and may receive service at higher voltages, which can make delivery more efficient and less expensive. Industrial retail prices are generally closer to wholesale prices; local generation costs and other conditions also affect retail rates. A facility’s actual bill can include energy, demand, capacity, transmission and distribution charges, and terms specific to its service arrangement.
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They can contribute to demand growth, but a modeled wholesale-price effect is not the same as a change in retail rates, and it does not prove that data centers caused a particular customer’s bill to rise. EIA reports that U.S. electricity demand grew about 1.7% per year during 2020–2025, compared with 0.1% per year during 2005–2019. It identifies data centers as one contributor to recent growth and expanded industrial electrification as another.
In a February 2026 high-demand scenario, EIA modeled faster load growth while holding future generating capacity to the outlook in its February Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). The modeled 2027 wholesale-price effects differed substantially by region:
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| Region | Modeled 2027 wholesale-price result | How to interpret it |
|---|---|---|
| ERCOT | $37/MWh, or 79%, above the February 2026 STEO forecast | EIA high-demand scenario; a conditional model result, not an observed retail-price increase. |
| PJM | $2.60/MWh, or 4%, above the February 2026 STEO forecast | The same high-demand scenario; EIA described the response as more limited, in part because PJM is interconnected with other eastern regions and has access to more generation. |
The regional contrast is the point: the effect of additional load depends on the grid and market serving it, as well as the amount and timing of demand and the generation assumed to be available. EIA cautions that later forecasts may differ from the February 2026 assumptions.
Who pays for grid upgrades for data centers?
There is no single allocation rule or settled nationwide outcome in the cited material. A large new load may require generation, transmission, distribution, interconnection work, or additional resources to maintain reliability. Rates, contracts, and regulatory safeguards determine how those costs and investment risks are divided between the customer and other ratepayers.
DOE’s 2025 rate-design brief identifies several issues in designing tariffs for large loads:
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- Assigning system costs fairly and reducing the risk that other customers pay for infrastructure built for a project that does not materialize or use as much power as expected.
- Maintaining resource adequacy as demand grows.
- Sharing technology and investment risks appropriately.
- Accounting for flexibility and options such as carbon-free supply.
These are questions for rate design and project-specific arrangements, not evidence that every data center shifts costs to other customers—or that every project pays all costs it creates.
FERC’s large-load proceeding
On June 18, 2026, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced orders directing all six regional transmission organizations and independent system operators under its jurisdiction to justify or reform rules for data centers, manufacturing facilities, and other large energy users. The issues include transmission study processes, transparency intended to prevent cost shifting, co-location and behind-the-meter generation, flexible-load transmission service, and how to study generation serving nearby or co-located loads. This is an active regulatory process, not a settled national tariff.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s 2026 review also describes state and federal policy activity on large-load interconnection, rate structures, deployment, and potential cost shifts. Selected policy activity does not establish a uniform outcome for every utility, state, or customer.
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How to assess claims about data centers and electricity bills
When evaluating a claim that data centers are making electricity cheaper or more expensive, check what is actually being compared:
- Is the figure a bill or a system cost? A customer’s tariff is not the same as the cost of generation, network upgrades, or reliability resources.
- Is it wholesale or retail? Wholesale market prices do not translate one-for-one into every customer’s retail rate.
- Does it match the place and time? A national annual average cannot establish an effect in a particular utility territory or during peak hours.
- Are the loads comparable? Compare peak MW, hourly profile, voltage, flexibility, contract, and local grid conditions—not only annual MWh.
- Who bears the investment risk? Look for the tariff or contract provisions that allocate upgrade costs and address a project that is delayed, downsized, or underused.
The available national figures do not provide matched facility-level bills or attributable grid costs for data centers versus specific sectors such as steel, aluminum, refining, or hydrogen production. A defensible comparison across those industries would need consistent locations, voltage levels, load profiles, tariffs, contracts, and accounting boundaries.
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