Are data centers raising US electricity prices?

This series alone cannot say — it is nominal, national, and driven by fuel costs, inflation and demand together. What it shows: a decade of flat prices through 2021, then +29% by 2025. The capacity-market signal (PJM) is on its own page.

How much power do data centers use?

LBNL/DOE estimated US data centers at 176 TWh — about 4.4% of US electricity — in 2023, projected to 6.7–12% by 2028. Globally the IEA estimates 415 TWh (2024), projected to ~945 TWh by 2030.

BRAIAIN Power Last updated: 2026-10-20

US industrial electricity price trend

Name: US industrial electricity prices, 2014–2026
Creator: BRAIAIN
Published: 2026-10-20
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

US industrial electricity averaged 8.62 cents/kWh in 2025 (preliminary), up 29% from 6.67 cents in 2020 — after holding between 6.7 and 7.2 cents for the entire decade before. The most recent monthly figure, July 2026, is 9.77 cents, up 4.7% year over year. Figures are nominal.

Average industrial retail price, nominal ¢/kWh, scale 0–10, annual 2014–2025. Chart drawn from the table below. Source: EIA.

The data

year	avg industrial price cents per kwh
2014	7.1
2015	6.91
2016	6.76
2017	6.88
2018	6.92
2019	6.81
2020	6.67
2021	7.18
2022	8.32
2023	8.04
2024	8.13
2025	8.62

Download: CSV · JSON — compiled data CC BY 4.0; underlying sources keep their own terms.

Method & caveats

EIA Electric Power Monthly Table 5.3 (2016–2025) and Electric Power Annual Table 2.4 (2014–2015); the tables agree in overlapping years. The 2025 annual figure is preliminary. Prices are nominal and national — this series shows the trend; it does not attribute the rise to any single cause, including AI data centers. For the AI-load context, see the PJM capacity-price series (a separate market measuring a different thing).

Sources

Questions

Are data centers raising US electricity prices?: This series alone cannot say — it is nominal, national, and driven by fuel costs, inflation and demand together. What it shows: a decade of flat prices through 2021, then +29% by 2025. The capacity-market signal (PJM) is on its own page.
How much power do data centers use?: LBNL/DOE estimated US data centers at 176 TWh — about 4.4% of US electricity — in 2023, projected to 6.7–12% by 2028. Globally the IEA estimates 415 TWh (2024), projected to ~945 TWh by 2030.

Cite this

BRAIAIN. "US industrial electricity price trend." www.braiain.com/us-industrial-electricity.html, updated 2026-10-20. Original sources as listed above.

Part of BRAIAIN — the AI buildout, measured. Every figure carries its source and date; the full rules are in the methodology. Corrections: see the contact note there. © 2026 BRAIAIN, a dnilgis project.