How Much Power Does an AI Data Center Use?
Traditional data centers have operated in the 5-30 megawatt range for decades. The new generation of AI-focused hyper-scale facilities operates on a completely different scale. A single AI training cluster can consume 50-100 MW, and a full campus can require 300-1,000+ MW of continuous power.[1]
For context, one megawatt can power roughly 750-1,000 average American homes. A 500 MW data center campus consumes as much electricity as a city of 375,000-500,000 people. Pekin, with approximately 32,000 residents, would be dwarfed by the power demands of a single facility.[2]
Impact on the Regional Grid
Pekin is served by the MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) electricity market, which coordinates power generation and transmission across 15 U.S. states. MISO's own analyses project that data centers will add between 149-241 TWh of demand in their region between 2024-2044. Power shortfalls are projected to begin in the Ameren service area covering downstate Illinois by 2031, with capacity shortfalls widening each year thereafter.[3]
A critical timing mismatch makes the problem worse: data centers can be built in 18-24 months, but connecting them to the grid takes 4-5 years, and building the transmission lines to deliver power often takes 7-12 years. Without action, MISO faces urgent near-term resource adequacy and reliability concerns.[4]
What This Means for Ratepayers
A Harvard Law School study titled "Extracting Profits from the Public" found that utilities enter "special contracts" with data center owners through opaque processes, and when the special rate is lower than the utility's cost to serve, other ratepayers subsidize the difference. The study found that utilities building billions in new infrastructure to serve data centers then spread those costs across all ratepayers, forcing residential customers to pay for costs driven solely by computing facilities.[5]
The pattern is already visible in Illinois: ComEd electricity prices jumped approximately 45% in summer 2025 compared to the previous summer, driven in part by surging data center demand. Data centers currently draw 5.43% of all electricity consumed in Illinois, with 30 more planned. In the next five years, ComEd demand is projected to jump 24%.[6]
- Higher peak demand pricing: In the PJM electricity market (Illinois to North Carolina), data centers accounted for an estimated $9.3 billion price increase in the 2025-26 capacity auction. Carnegie Mellon estimates data centers could raise average U.S. electricity bills by 8% by 2030, exceeding 25% in the highest-demand markets.
- Infrastructure costs: Serving a massive new load requires upgrades to substations, transmission lines, and distribution networks - costs socialized across all customers. Residential rates climbed 10% from 2022 to 2024, while industrial rates fell.
- Reduced reliability: When grid capacity is committed to a single large customer, less headroom exists for residential demand spikes. CUB and NRDC experts warn PJM states could face forced blackouts and $163 billion in additional electricity capacity costs from 2028-2033.
The Loudoun County Warning
Northern Virginia's data center industry currently consumes 4,140 MW of power - more than twice the world's second-largest data center market (Beijing). Loudoun County saw a 176% increase in electricity demand in five years. In 2022, Dominion Energy admitted it could not meet data center power demand and placed a temporary pause on connections. On July 10, 2024, 60 data centers simultaneously dropped off the grid during a transmission fault, creating a sudden 1,500 MW surplus that could have caused blackouts across Virginia. Dominion has proposed residential rate increases of $11.24/month.[7]
In Georgia, regulators approved a plan to increase power capacity by 50% at a construction cost of $16.3 billion ($50-60 billion total cost to customers over decades). Since 2023, the average Georgia Power residential customer is paying $43 more per month following a series of increases driven by data center demand.[8]
Crowding Out Renewable Energy
Data center operators frequently claim their facilities will be powered by renewable energy. In practice, this often means purchasing renewable energy credits (RECs) while drawing power from the same fossil-fuel-heavy grid as everyone else. The actual electrons flowing to the data center come from whatever mix of coal, natural gas, nuclear, wind, and solar the grid provides at any given moment.[8]
More importantly, when data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity, they absorb renewable capacity that would otherwise serve existing customers. Every megawatt of wind or solar capacity claimed by a data center is a megawatt that does not reduce carbon emissions for the rest of the grid. The net effect is to slow - or reverse - the clean energy transition for everyone else.
Diesel Backup Generators
Every large data center maintains extensive diesel generator backup systems to protect against power outages. A facility consuming 500 MW may have hundreds of diesel generators, each rated at 2-3 MW. These generators are tested regularly (typically monthly) and can run for extended periods during grid emergencies.[9]
When operated, these generators produce significant emissions: nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (PM2.5), carbon monoxide, and volatile organic compounds. The air quality impacts on surrounding neighborhoods can be substantial, particularly during simultaneous testing events or extended grid outages.
What Pekin Should Demand
- Full disclosure of the facility's projected peak and average power demand at each phase of development
- A grid impact study showing how the load will affect reliability, reserve margins, and peak pricing for existing ratepayers
- Transparency about any negotiated electricity rates or tax incentives
- A binding commitment that residential ratepayers will not bear infrastructure costs for serving the data center
- An honest accounting of renewable energy claims - will the facility actually generate or directly procure new renewable capacity, or simply buy credits?