Data centers are devouring even more energy than previously forecast, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The government agency has revised its projections of energy use upward for 2025 and 2026 due to increasing growth in energy consumption by data centers.

Among all the sectors that the EIA reports on its monthly STEO (Short Term Energy Report), the greatest revision was needed in the commercial sector, “where data centers are an expanding source of demand,” the report noted. In previous STEO reports, the EIA forecast that commercial sector energy demand would increase by an annual average of 2%. But in its June STEO, the EIA revised this upward to predict a 3% increase in 2025 and a 5% increase in 2026.

While those numbers may appear modest in an absolute sense, viewed on a percentage basis they represent a 50% revision upward for this year and a more than 100% boost for next year—suggesting that EIA has grossly underestimated the rate of growth for energy consumption in the sector most influenced by data centers.

The June STEO also indicates that overall U.S. power demand is increasing toward an all-time high. In 2024, U.S power demand clocked in at the then record pace of 4,097 billion kWh. From there, the EIA forecasts it will rise to 4,193 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) in 2025 and 4,283 billion kWh in 2026.

In terms of the sources of this energy, the share of power created with natural gas use is forecast to decline slightly, from 42% in 2024 to 40% this year and next. This is despite the growing trend among data center to use natural gas, especially among AI-related facilities.

Also seeing a modest decrease in power generation usage is coal, which the agency forecasts will continue to generate 16% this year as it did last year, then fall to 15% in 2026.

In contrast, renewable is forecast to enjoy a slight but steady upward rise, from 23% last year, with a prediction for 25% this year and 27% in 2026.

In addition to the EIA report, a number of recent reports portray a data center sector devouring energy in an upward growth patterns in the years ahead. A Department of Energy report in late 2024 noted that data centers were responsible for 4.4% of U.S. power consumption in 2023, and forecast that number—at the high end—would almost triple by 2028, though the prediction also allowed an increase to 6.7%.

Most dramatic was a 2024 report by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that noted that energy use is not just growing, it’s growing at an accelerating rate. The LBNL report found that data center energy use experienced a 7% growth rate between 2014 to 2018, a number that rose to 18% between 2018 to 2023. Looking forward, the report presented a combined report/forecast that suggested a range from 13% to 27% between 2023 and 2028.

Yet as he LBNL report explained, “This surge in data center electricity demand, however, should be understood in the context of the much larger electricity demand that is expected to occur over the next few decades from a combination of electric vehicle adoption, onshoring of manufacturing, hydrogen utilization, and the electrification of industry and buildings.”