A significant heatwave is currently affecting the United States, putting pressure on the nation’s electricity grid and water resources while challenging public tolerance for the rapid growth of AI data centers, which require substantial amounts of both power and water.
This heatwave coincides with an urgent drive to establish thousands of new AI data centers to accommodate the swift expansion of artificial intelligence technologies. Utilities, regulators, and government leaders have issued warnings that the rapid development of these facilities is outpacing the growth of the country’s electricity and water systems.
Politicians from both sides of the aisle are advocating for greater scrutiny of data centers. Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently proposed a halt to new data center construction in rural regions during a campaign event, emphasizing that such centers should be self-sufficient in energy and water usage.
On the other side of the spectrum, political figures such as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are pushing for a temporary freeze on new data center developments.
Resistance to new data centers seems to align with public opinion; a recent Gallup poll found that 70% of Americans oppose their establishment in their neighborhoods, with many worrying about their excessive consumption of valuable resources like electricity and water.
Currently, data centers account for 4% of electricity demand in the U.S., a figure projected to rise to 9% by 2030, as noted by the U.S. Department of Energy.
The intense heat enveloping a large portion of the U.S. is proving to be a crucial test for the power grid, which is increasingly strained by extreme weather conditions. Arif Gasilov, a partner at Gasilov Group specializing in natural resources and the built environment, remarked that the designs of data centers were based on average weather patterns, which are rapidly changing.
This situation has prompted power providers to act. PJM Interconnection, the largest power grid operator in the U.S., has requested the Department of Energy to mandate that data centers switch to backup generators within 15 minutes of an emergency alert. This measure aims to conserve energy for residential and commercial users, particularly as a heat dome settles over the Eastern Seaboard, leading to "feels-like" temperatures exceeding 104°F in Washington, D.C., and hitting 100°F in New York.
The majority of data centers are clustered in the South and Midwest, with nearly 38% of Americans residing within five miles of one of the 3,000 operational data centers, based on Pew Research statistics.
Under normal conditions, cooling systems of data centers consume a significant 40% of their electricity; this percentage is bound to increase with rising temperatures driven by ongoing climate changes, according to Gasilov. Additionally, data centers create localized heat islands, with a University of Cambridge analysis showing temperature increases of an average of 2°C and up to 9.2°C in proximity to these facilities.
Experts worry that the current heatwave is just a glimpse of the increasing demands on the power grid that will result from the growing prevalence of energy- and water-intensive AI data centers.
This growing demand is not limited to the immediate heatwave. Across the country, utility companies are reporting a resurgence in electricity demand for the first time in decades, hindered by the expansion of AI data centers, the shift to electric transportation, and new manufacturing operations. This situation is forcing utilities to postpone retiring old power plants while simultaneously ramping up investments in new generation and transmission sources.
The pressure is evident for both commercial and residential users. Earlier this year, around 50,000 customers near Lake Tahoe in California were instructed to switch to different power suppliers due to heightened demand driven by data centers.
In Henrico County, Virginia, with 37 data centers, schools were advised to reduce their energy consumption due to the increasing strain on the grid, as revealed by emails obtained by tech outlet 404 Media. Virginia leads the nation with 398 operational data centers and another 287 in the pipeline, followed closely by Texas, which has 296 active centers and 170 more planned.
Each large-scale data center typically requires between 100 and 300 megawatts of power—sufficient energy to support as many as 300,000 homes or a city of about 750,000 people. This equals the populations of cities like Nashville, Tennessee; Charlotte, North Carolina; or Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
In total, data centers in the U.S. consume approximately 176 terawatt-hours of electricity annually, enough to power around 16 million homes or support around 40 million people, comparable to the population sizes of Canada or California, as well as megacities like Jakarta or Dhaka.
This situation also places a considerable burden on water resources, which are already under stress. During hot temperatures, the demand for water at data centers escalates as their cooling systems must work harder to maintain optimal server temperatures—often relying on non-recirculated water. Alarmingly, nearly 80% of the potable water used in cooling processes evaporates.
Gasilov pointed out that facilities utilizing evaporative cooling during heatwaves tap into already depleted water sources, often subject to restrictions for residents.
While data centers’ water usage is relatively low—around 627 million gallons daily—compared to agriculture and industrial usage, the consumption is expected to rise alongside the demand for AI, especially as most data center growth is occurring in regions confronting significant water shortages. Recent statistics reveal that two-thirds of all new or planned data centers since 2022 are situated in water-scarce areas.
A single large AI data center can utilize up to 5 million gallons of water daily, with this demand peaking during summer, coinciding with local communities often facing crises in water supply. According to Alex MacColl, project manager at Datamove, the dependence of data centers on water creates a cyclical issue that persists even during times of shortage.
The Environmental and Energy Institute indicates that a sizable data center can consume as much water in a day as a city with 50,000 residents, which accounts for approximately 15% of Corpus Christi, Texas's population. Local officials are growing increasingly concerned about the area's dwindling fresh water supplies, worsened by a drought lasting five years. Reports suggest that a proposed data center in a neighboring community has delayed plans for an emergency water supply for Corpus Christi.
