⚡Electricity Usage - New Daily Record?
Daily electricity usage hit a single-day record in July (I think). Now what?
It’s been pretty interesting to watch the debate on electricity demand forecasts and expectations. On one hand, we’re entering a policy environment that favors fossil fuels over electrification. On the other hand, we’re building data centers with staggering needs for electricity to fuel artificial intelligence.
So, are we starting to see significant electricity usage and demand growth after several decades of relatively flat trends?
I think so!
The excellent Energy Information Administration publishes hourly electricity usage on their Electric Grid Monitor, and the U.S. hit a record total of 15.3 terawatt-hours on July 29th, 2025.1
A couple things to point out:
Peak summer electric usage increased from 14.1 TWh in 2019 to 15.3 TWh in 2024/25 — that’s a +1.2 TWh (+7%) increase.
Peak winter usage increased from 12.9 TWh in 2019 to 15.1 TWh in 2024/25 — that’s a +2.2 TWh (+17%!) gain.
Electricity demand used to follow a more summer dominant pattern, but U.S. electric demand in the winter has been growing faster overall. We now see sort-of a twin peak pattern with demand peaking in July and in January.
Average minimum usage increased from 9.2 TWh in 2019 to 9.9 TWh in 2024/25 — that’s +0.7 TWh or +7%.
Again, we’re likely starting to see the beginning of a major shift in electricity usage growth. Not only because of datacenter-driven demand growth, but it’s getting hotter. Note that the experts at EIA agree: in 2019, their annual electricity generation forecast was for +0.8% average growth through 2050 — their 2025 forecast growth doubled to +1.6% through 2050.
I tend fall in the we-need-a-lot-more-clean-electricity-capacity camp. If we grow demand without growing capacity (supply), electricity will become outrageously expensive (if it hasn’t already).
It’s hard to visualize a “TeraWatt-hour”, but Cuba used about 15 TWh in 2024. The U.S. used that in one day.