PowerThe agency’s release fetched October 30, 2026
Electricity demand
Commercial electricity sales in Aug 2026 were 150.6 billion kWh, +5.1% on a year earlier. Sales to all customers were +4.6% on a year earlier. Data centers sit inside these totals with offices, shops and factories; the series show whether demand is rising with the build, not how much of the rise is data centers.
Sources, method and freshnessThe agency’s release fetched October 30, 2026
U.S. Energy Information Administration, a U.S. government work in the public domain, credited beneath each chart.
Cite as The Capex Report, Electricity demand, release fetched October 30, 2026.
Is commercial electricity demand rising?
Monthly, million kilowatt-hoursRetail sales of electricity to ultimate customers in the United States, from EIA's monthly electric power data (Form EIA-861M). Data centers are billed as commercial or, for the largest, industrial customers depending on the state and tariff, so no sector isolates them. Latest observation Aug 2026; fetched October 30, 2026.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration. U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, retail sales of electricity (EIA-861M).
And total electricity demand?
Monthly, million kilowatt-hoursRetail sales of electricity to ultimate customers in the United States, from EIA's monthly electric power data (Form EIA-861M). Data centers are billed as commercial or, for the largest, industrial customers depending on the state and tariff, so no sector isolates them. Latest observation Aug 2026; fetched October 30, 2026.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration. U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, retail sales of electricity (EIA-861M).
Questions this page answers
- Do these series measure data centers?
- No. The Energy Information Administration reports sales by customer class, and data centers are billed as commercial or, for the largest, industrial customers depending on the state and tariff. The series show whether demand is rising with the build; they cannot say how much of the rise is data centers.
- Why compare with a year earlier?
- Electricity use follows the weather and the season, so a month is compared with the same month a year before. A hot summer or a cold winter still moves the comparison; the figures are not weather-adjusted.
- What comes next here?
- Demand in the regions where data centers cluster, from the grid operators’ hourly data and the states’ monthly sales, and the power plants being added, delayed and retired.