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Written by Jesse Broehl for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Everyone is talking about the construction of new data centers and the accompanying increase in electricity demand: What data centers are actually coming online and what is the corresponding electrical load required by the U.S. power grid to power these new plants?
Data center power generation demand in the U.S. during second-quarter 2025 expanded 1,188 megawatts (MW) at 35 locations, based on IIR Energy's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) database, which tracks projects, plants, units and offline events across various industrial sectors.
40 Units Totaling 1,188 MW of Electricity Demand Commissioned in Q2 2025
The 40 data center units totaling 1,188 MW in power demand were built across 14 states, with Virginia, Arizona and Georgia all seeing 180 MW or more per state commissioned.
Northern Virginia remains the world's largest market for existing and new installations. However, Texas is experiencing rapid growth in this market in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio regions.
Click on the image at right for an IIR Energy density heat map of data center demand added in the second quarter.
Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Industrial Manufacturing Plant Database can click here for a list of all 40 data center units.
Click on the image at right for a chart showing data center electricity demand added in the second quarter, by state.
Data Center Electricity Load Demand
These plants are some of the most energy-intensive commercial and industrial facilities in the U.S. For now, all plants installed in the second quarter draw their electricity from the local grid where they are situated, although some plants in development are being planned with their own on-site, behind-the-meter baseload power generation -- in other words, their own power plants so they don't have to rely on the power grid. Behind-the-meter generation at data centers is rapidly becoming the preferred method for power generation given the strain that expansions and additions have placed on traditional power providers.
Approximately 1% of data center demand in the U.S. is currently fed by onsite, behind-the-meter generation, but IIR Energy expects this proportion to grow in coming years as the demand by data centers for grid capacity outstrips the notoriously slow process for new power plants and needed transmission lines to get built. Some data center owners will be willing to opt for the greater capital expenditures needed to power their own data centers instead of waiting for grid market sources to catch up, even if this means paying a higher premium for the electrons.
Data Center Electricity On-Site Back-up Generation
Since uninterrupted operation of the data center is essential, the standard design of today's data centers incorporate rows of sometimes dozens of backup internal combustion engines that usually run on diesel fuel oil, but in some cases natural gas (and gas-fed units are expected to grow market share).
Peaking back-up generation ideally is a higher total nameplate capacity than total plant needs to account for units on maintenance outage, reduced capacity factors and other issues impacting peak generation availability. Depending on the type of data center, backup generation is typically either 1x, 2,x or 3x redundant when it comes to backup generation. For example, backup generation for a 100-MW data center could be 100 MW, 200 MW or 300 MW, depending on the purpose of the data center.
Data Center Example
One of the larger U.S. data centers that was commissioned the second quarter was the McCarran (Tahoe Reno) Data Center in McCarran, Utah, owned by Novva Data Centers (West Jordan, Utah). The data center sits on a 20-acre campus and comprises 300,000 square feet of facility structure.
The McCarran data center electricity demand is 60 MW, the total potential draw on the local electricity grid. The plant has six, 10-MW halls of computer servers. However, the plant has 120 MW of backup generation capacity from 40 internal combustion engine generators, each rated at 3 MW nameplate capacity. The generators are KD83V16 units by manufacturer Kohler. IIR Energy tracks backup generation units at data centers at the unit level.
Diversified Owners of New Data Centers Online in Q2
Notably in the second quarter, there were 50 different owners for the 50 different data center phases brought online. In some past quarters, some owners were behind more than one data center phase, but that is not the case in the second quarter.
Blackstone Incorporated (New York, New York) is the largest owner of new data center electricity demand that came online in the second quarter with its 158 MW, 835,000-square-foot Atlanta DC3/4 Data Center Campus. It is owned by Quality Technology Services (QTS), a Blackstone subsidiary.
Data Analysis Note: Data centers are usually not constructed and commissioned with a "one-and-done" large plant where all the facility can be allocated to one quarter alone. Typically, data center plants are built in phases on campuses with separate buildings built in sequence, and these phases are what IIR Energy tracked for this analysis.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
Data center power generation demand in the U.S. during second-quarter 2025 expanded 1,188 megawatts (MW) at 35 locations, based on IIR Energy's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) database, which tracks projects, plants, units and offline events across various industrial sectors.
40 Units Totaling 1,188 MW of Electricity Demand Commissioned in Q2 2025
The 40 data center units totaling 1,188 MW in power demand were built across 14 states, with Virginia, Arizona and Georgia all seeing 180 MW or more per state commissioned.
Northern Virginia remains the world's largest market for existing and new installations. However, Texas is experiencing rapid growth in this market in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio regions.
Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Industrial Manufacturing Plant Database can click here for a list of all 40 data center units.
Data Center Electricity Load Demand
These plants are some of the most energy-intensive commercial and industrial facilities in the U.S. For now, all plants installed in the second quarter draw their electricity from the local grid where they are situated, although some plants in development are being planned with their own on-site, behind-the-meter baseload power generation -- in other words, their own power plants so they don't have to rely on the power grid. Behind-the-meter generation at data centers is rapidly becoming the preferred method for power generation given the strain that expansions and additions have placed on traditional power providers.
Approximately 1% of data center demand in the U.S. is currently fed by onsite, behind-the-meter generation, but IIR Energy expects this proportion to grow in coming years as the demand by data centers for grid capacity outstrips the notoriously slow process for new power plants and needed transmission lines to get built. Some data center owners will be willing to opt for the greater capital expenditures needed to power their own data centers instead of waiting for grid market sources to catch up, even if this means paying a higher premium for the electrons.
Data Center Electricity On-Site Back-up Generation
Since uninterrupted operation of the data center is essential, the standard design of today's data centers incorporate rows of sometimes dozens of backup internal combustion engines that usually run on diesel fuel oil, but in some cases natural gas (and gas-fed units are expected to grow market share).
Peaking back-up generation ideally is a higher total nameplate capacity than total plant needs to account for units on maintenance outage, reduced capacity factors and other issues impacting peak generation availability. Depending on the type of data center, backup generation is typically either 1x, 2,x or 3x redundant when it comes to backup generation. For example, backup generation for a 100-MW data center could be 100 MW, 200 MW or 300 MW, depending on the purpose of the data center.
Data Center Example
One of the larger U.S. data centers that was commissioned the second quarter was the McCarran (Tahoe Reno) Data Center in McCarran, Utah, owned by Novva Data Centers (West Jordan, Utah). The data center sits on a 20-acre campus and comprises 300,000 square feet of facility structure.
The McCarran data center electricity demand is 60 MW, the total potential draw on the local electricity grid. The plant has six, 10-MW halls of computer servers. However, the plant has 120 MW of backup generation capacity from 40 internal combustion engine generators, each rated at 3 MW nameplate capacity. The generators are KD83V16 units by manufacturer Kohler. IIR Energy tracks backup generation units at data centers at the unit level.
Diversified Owners of New Data Centers Online in Q2
Notably in the second quarter, there were 50 different owners for the 50 different data center phases brought online. In some past quarters, some owners were behind more than one data center phase, but that is not the case in the second quarter.
Blackstone Incorporated (New York, New York) is the largest owner of new data center electricity demand that came online in the second quarter with its 158 MW, 835,000-square-foot Atlanta DC3/4 Data Center Campus. It is owned by Quality Technology Services (QTS), a Blackstone subsidiary.
Data Analysis Note: Data centers are usually not constructed and commissioned with a "one-and-done" large plant where all the facility can be allocated to one quarter alone. Typically, data center plants are built in phases on campuses with separate buildings built in sequence, and these phases are what IIR Energy tracked for this analysis.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
