According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), US electricity consumption will increase again by around 2%/year in 2026 (+2.2%) and 2027 (+1.6%), spurred by the rising demand from the commercial sector, which includes data centres. After a 2.9% growth in 2025, the electricity consumption of this sector is expected to rise by 3.7% in 2026 and by 2.8% in 2027, while that of industry should accelerate, from 0.7% in 2025 to 1.2% in 2026 and 2.7% in 2027. Despite a hot summer that boosted residential electricity consumption (for cooling) in the third quarter of 2026, the US EIA expects electricity consumption from households to rise by 1.7% in 2026 and to stagnate (-0.5%) in 2027.
To meet this rising demand, power generation is expected to rise by 2.7% in 2026 and by 1.5% in 2027. Most of the increase will come from renewables (+9.9% in 2026 and +8.1% in 2027), especially solar (+21% and +18%, respectively) and wind (+7.3% and +4.8%, respectively). Gas-fired power generation should increase by 3% in 2026 and remain stable in 2027, while coal-fired power generation will continue to decline (-5.7% and -3.7%, respectively).
Weather events - such as winter storms and high temperatures in July - contributed to boost wholesale electricity prices in 2026, which averaged USD52/MWh so far, i.e., 11% higher than in 2025; prices should decline slightly to USD49/MWh in 2027.