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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsData centers run large, continuous electrical loads for servers, storage, networking, cooling and power equipment. Their water use depends mainly on the cooling system, climate and operating settings: evaporative cooling consumes water through evaporation and blowdown, while other designs can reduce or largely avoid on-site consumption. A national statistic can show the sector’s scale, but it cannot predict a particular town’s water risk, grid upgrades or household bill.
To understand a proposed facility, residents need the project’s dated load and water figures, the local utility’s capacity and upgrade studies, the water source and drought plan, and the agreements that assign infrastructure costs. The sections below explain what to request and how to interpret it.
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Why data centers have an unusual local footprint
Unlike an office or warehouse that may shut down overnight, a data center is designed to operate continuously. Servers process data around the clock, and supporting equipment keeps them powered, cooled and connected. The resulting demand can be concentrated in one substation, transmission corridor or municipal water system even when the sector’s national share appears modest.
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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →The International Energy Agency (IEA) summarized this distinction in its Energy and AI: Executive Summary (2025): “Data centres account for a small share of global electricity consumption today, but their local impacts are far more pronounced.” Whether that observation applies to a particular community depends on the project’s size, timing, utility territory and water infrastructure—not on a global average alone.
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How much electricity does a data center use?
Current global and U.S. scale
IEA estimates that data centers used about 415 terawatt-hours (TWh), or roughly 1.5% of world electricity consumption, in 2024. The United States represented about 45% of global data-center electricity use in that estimate. IEA’s analysis projects approximately 945 TWh of global data-center consumption in 2030. That is a scenario-based projection, not a guaranteed outcome; the agency also warns that growth can be locally concentrated and encounter grid constraints.
For the United States, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) 2025 update estimates that data-center electricity use rose 14% from 2023 to 2024. The report attributes the increase primarily to more accelerated servers and higher rated power. Efficiency improvements have not offset growth in total demand. These figures are estimates rather than direct meter readings from every facility.
The same 2025 report gives a reference-case model in which U.S. data-center use grows 22% from 2024 to 2025 and another 29% from 2025 to 2026. Those percentages are modeled year-over-year changes, not measurements of every project under construction. LBNL emphasizes substantial uncertainty and data gaps.
DOE’s resource hub also relays an earlier LBNL 2024 estimate: data centers consumed about 4.4% of U.S. electricity in 2023 and could account for approximately 6.7% to 12% in 2028. Because this is the 2024 estimate reported by DOE, it should not be blended with the newer 2025 update as though both were measurements of the same boundary and year.
What the electricity powers
- IT equipment: servers, storage, networking and associated power-conversion losses.
- Cooling: chillers, pumps, fans, cooling towers or other heat-rejection equipment.
- Facility systems: lighting, controls, security, fire protection and other building loads.
- Power resilience: uninterruptible power systems, switchgear and standby generation systems consume energy during operation and testing.
A project’s annual energy use and its highest instantaneous demand answer different questions. Annual energy affects total generation and emissions accounting. Peak demand determines whether local substations, feeders and transmission facilities can serve the site without upgrades. Ask for both figures, including the expected ramp-up schedule rather than only the ultimate build-out number.
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How cooling turns electricity into water demand
The common chilled-water and cooling-tower path
IT equipment converts electrical energy into heat. In a common chilled-water arrangement, air or another room-cooling medium transfers that heat to chilled water. A chiller then moves the heat to a condenser-water loop, and a cooling tower releases it to outdoor air. The tower removes heat partly by evaporating water.
Evaporated water is considered consumed because it leaves the local water system as vapor. Cooling towers also discharge some water as blowdown. As water evaporates, minerals become concentrated; blowdown controls that concentration and must be replaced with make-up water. The amount of evaporation and blowdown varies with equipment design, weather, operating temperature, water chemistry and how many cycles the system can run before discharge.
Cooling choices change the water profile
Not every data center uses the same design. Air-cooled or largely closed-loop systems can reduce direct water consumption, while evaporative systems may use more water but sometimes use less electricity for heat rejection in suitable climates. Hybrid systems can switch modes as outdoor conditions, water availability or operating requirements change.
DOE identifies operational measures that can reduce cooling energy or water use: avoiding unnecessarily low temperature and narrow humidity settings, improving hot-aisle and cold-aisle separation, using air-side economizing when outdoor conditions permit, and using water-side economizing in appropriately designed systems. The savings are site-specific; a measure that works well in one climate or design may provide less benefit elsewhere.
How much water does a data center use?
There is no single water number
A facility’s water demand depends on its cooling method, climate, IT load, operating schedule, water chemistry and source. A proposal that gives only a daily or annual number is incomplete unless it says whether the figure is a withdrawal or consumption, whether it covers average or peak conditions, and what equipment and buildings are inside the boundary.
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DOE defines water usage effectiveness (WUE) as annual site water use in liters divided by annual IT equipment energy use in kilowatt-hours. WUE is a site-based ratio, not a universal amount of water required by every data center. Ask for the reporting period, the site boundary, the water sources included and whether the numerator is withdrawal or consumption.
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Direct water versus indirect water
Direct water is used at the facility, especially for evaporative cooling, humidification or related processes. Indirect water is associated with producing the electricity the facility buys. Thermoelectric generators may withdraw and consume water for their own cooling, and the amount depends on the generation mix serving the data center.
These are different systems and should be reported separately. The Energy Information Administration publishes annual generator-level thermoelectric cooling-water data through 2024. Turning that information into a data-center footprint requires an explicit method for assigning electricity supply and the associated water impacts; a facility’s WUE does not include that grid-side water by itself.
What to ask about water supply
- Is the source municipal potable water, reclaimed water, groundwater or another supply?
- What are expected annual demand and maximum-day demand at full build-out?
- What cooling design and operating conditions produce those figures?
- Are the figures withdrawals, consumption, discharge or a combination?
- How will drought restrictions or water-quality changes affect operations?
- What treatment, storage or discharge capacity must the utility add?
Do data centers affect local water supplies?
They can, but the answer is project-specific. A facility connected to a water system with ample treatment, storage and source capacity may have a different effect from an equally sized facility in a constrained system. The relevant comparison is the project’s peak and annual demand against the utility’s available capacity during normal conditions and drought conditions.
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Residents should request the utility’s capacity analysis, source and supply projections, treatment-plant constraints, storage assumptions and any planned expansions. Ask whether the project is one phase of a larger campus and whether later phases are included in the analysis. A statement that water is “available” is not a substitute for dated engineering figures.
Will a data center raise electricity bills?
National electricity statistics cannot answer that question for a household. A local effect depends on the utility’s rate structure, the cost of new substations or transmission, demand-growth forecasts, contracts and the way costs are allocated among customers.
Ask for the interconnection study and the utility’s public filings or tariffs. Identify which upgrades are required solely for the project, which serve broader system needs, who pays the upfront cost, and how the utility recovers ongoing service costs. A project agreement may assign some costs to the developer, but only the applicable filing or contract establishes the actual treatment. Neither the IEA’s global estimate nor an LBNL national forecast determines a particular customer’s bill.
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Use the following sequence when reviewing a proposal, planning document or public hearing record.
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- Get the electrical schedule. Request expected annual energy use, peak demand, power factor assumptions if provided, the initial operating date, each construction phase and the ultimate build-out.
- Request the grid study. Ask whether the utility has completed an interconnection or reliability study; list required substations, feeders, transmission work, lead times and upgrade costs; and ask which portions are public.
- Document the water system. Obtain the source, annual demand, maximum-day demand, cooling design, treatment requirements, discharge destination and drought operating plan.
- Check the water accounting. Determine whether reported values are withdrawals or consumption, site-only or inclusive of upstream electricity generation, and whether WUE’s numerator and denominator are disclosed.
- Review rates and cost allocation. Examine utility tariffs, commission filings, infrastructure agreements and any provisions assigning construction, demand or standby costs.
- Test the forecast’s boundaries. Record the publication date, geography, scenario, measurement boundary, assumptions and uncertainty range. Do not compare a 2030 global projection with a measured 2024 local value as if they were equivalent.
How to compare two proposed designs or sites
When genuine alternatives exist, compare identical dimensions and document the evidence for each one.
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| Comparison | Questions to answer |
|---|---|
| Cooling and direct water | What cooling method is proposed, and what are annual, average-day and peak-day withdrawals and consumption? |
| Water source and drought exposure | Is the source potable, reclaimed or groundwater, and what restrictions apply during drought? |
| Electrical load | What are the phased peak demand and annual energy figures, and when does each phase come online? |
| Grid connection | Which substations, feeders or transmission upgrades are required, and what reliability analysis supports them? |
| Supply claims | If renewable or firm power is claimed, when is it available and does it match the facility’s hourly demand? |
| Infrastructure costs | Which party pays for construction, operation, maintenance and eventual expansion? |
This framework identifies questions to document; it does not prove that one design will produce a specific community impact without project data.
How to read forecasts without overclaiming
Every forecast should be labeled with its year, geography, source, boundary and assumptions. The 2025 LBNL update’s reference case is different from a sensitivity scenario, and both are different from measured utility data. A projection of national demand does not show where that demand will appear or which local facilities will be built.
The LBNL report states: “Significant uncertainties and data gaps remain in these estimates.” That qualification matters when a developer, utility or opponent cites a single number without describing the range of outcomes. Ask what would have to be true for the estimate to be high or low: server deployment, utilization, efficiency, construction timing, cooling design, electricity availability or project cancellations.
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- It can show scale: data centers are a growing, continuous electricity load, and evaporative cooling can consume substantial direct water.
- It can define metrics: PUE measures total facility energy divided by IT energy; WUE measures annual site water use divided by annual IT energy. Neither metric answers the other metric’s question.
- It cannot predict a household bill: that requires local tariffs, contracts, load studies and cost-allocation rules.
- It cannot establish a town’s water risk: that requires the project’s source and demand figures compared with the local system’s capacity and drought plans.
- It cannot turn a scenario into a commitment: projections remain dependent on assumptions and may change as designs, schedules and grid conditions change.
For a proposed facility, the most useful public record is therefore concrete and dated: an electrical load schedule, an interconnection and reliability study, a water-balance document with clear boundaries, a drought plan, and the utility agreements that explain who pays for required infrastructure.
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