Data center developments in ten US states drove a one percent increase in commercial electricity usage across America over the last four years, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) has said.

A report from the EIA, the government statistics agency focused on the US power grid, revealed that electricity demand went up by 14 billion kilowatt hours (BkWh) in the US between 2019-2023, an overall increase of one percent.

“The growth in commercial demand for electricity is concentrated in a handful of states experiencing rapid development of large-scale computing facilities such as data centers,” said the report.

It shows that commercial electricity demand in the 10 states with the most electricity demand growth increased by a combined 42 BkWh between 2019 and 2023, representing a growth of 10 percent in those states over that time. By contrast, demand in the forty other states decreased by 28 BkWh over the same period, a three percent decline.

Virginia and Texas, home to two of the world’s largest data center markets, experienced the most electricity demand growth by overall volume, though the state with the highest relative growth was North Dakota, with electricity usage up 37 percent in four years.

Data center companies operating in North Dakota include cryptomining and AI provider Applied Digital, which recently secured $200 million in financing to build out its facilities in the state. It has agreed to a deal with an unnamed hyperscaler which will take up space at the expanded facility.

Looking to the future, the EIA expects commercial electricity sales across the US will grow by three percent in 2024 and by one percent in 2025. “Data center developments are evolving rapidly, and we plan to re-evaluate our upcoming forecasts as we receive more information,” the agency said.