The modern economy runs on data—and data runs on power. As digital infrastructure expands to support AI, cloud computing, and connected systems, the United States is entering a new era of energy demand. Data centers, once a niche factor in grid planning, are now reshaping the nation’s energy landscape at a scale few anticipated even a few years ago.
According to S&P Global, grid demand from data centers is projected to rise 22% in 2025 and to nearly triple by 2030. These facilities—the backbone of the digital economy—already consume massive amounts of electricity, and their rapid proliferation is straining utilities and accelerating costs for businesses across industries.
A surge that’s reshaping the energy landscape
What’s happening is more than technological growth. It’s a fundamental shift in how and when the U.S. uses power. The explosive rise in AI and digital infrastructure has led to concentrated energy demand in regions like Northern Virginia, Texas, and the Pacific Northwest, where data centers are clustering around access to fiber, land, and substations.
But this growth comes with consequences. Bloomberg reports that electricity prices near major data center hubs have surged as much as 267% over the past five years, creating ripple effects across surrounding markets. As utilities race to expand generation and transmission capacity, commercial customers everywhere are feeling the pressure in the form of higher rates, demand charges, and new peak pricing structures.
In this environment, the cost of energy is no longer a background expense—it’s a business variable that can materially affect profitability and capital strategy.
The new business risk: volatility and unpredictability
The grid was not designed for the kind of sustained, high-intensity load that data centers now represent. This imbalance is introducing new volatility—from regional capacity constraints to time-of-use spikes—that impacts all commercial users, not just the data center operators themselves.
For CFOs, COOs, and sustainability leaders, this creates a new layer of operational risk. Energy costs that once followed a predictable seasonal curve are now increasingly influenced by factors outside traditional control: regional congestion, transmission bottlenecks, and the cascading impact of AI-driven electricity demand.
The takeaway is clear: businesses can no longer assume that energy prices will normalize. The old model of passively paying the bill and absorbing volatility is becoming untenable.
The strategic imperative for energy management
In this new landscape, energy management is not a facilities initiative — it’s a strategic discipline tied directly to financial resilience. Companies that treat energy as a controllable business function, rather than a fixed cost, are finding new ways to manage volatility, preserve capital, and unlock efficiency gains.
Modern energy management means leveraging data—granular, real-time, actionable data—to understand where energy is being used, where it’s being wasted, and how to optimize performance across systems and sites. It’s about shifting from reactive cost control to proactive planning.
Key capabilities include:
- Visibility: Identifying consumption patterns and performance outliers across portfolios.
- Automation: Adjusting HVAC, lighting, and refrigeration systems in response to demand and price signals.
- Flexibility: Reducing load or shifting usage during high-cost periods to flatten peaks and protect budgets.
The result is a smarter, more resilient operation—one that stays profitable even as the grid around it becomes more complex.
How GridPoint helps businesses regain control
This is where solutions like GridPoint become indispensable. GridPoint’s data-driven platform connects directly to critical building systems, providing real-time insight and intelligent automation across portfolios. With these tools, companies can make decisions that reduce energy use, improve comfort and reliability, and manage costs dynamically—not after the fact.
For businesses outside the data center boom, that level of visibility and control is the key to staying competitive. While AI infrastructure drives national energy consumption upward, GridPoint helps customers counterbalance those pressures locally—mitigating costs, extending equipment life, and improving overall operational performance.
Energy volatility may be inevitable, but vulnerability is not.
Resilience in the age of the digital grid
The digital economy is only getting more energy intensive. As data centers multiply and demand continues to climb, every organization connected to the grid will feel the effects. The businesses that thrive will be those that see energy management as a strategic advantage — one that safeguards margins, strengthens resilience, and supports sustainable growth.
GridPoint helps organizations turn energy volatility into opportunity. Want to gain the visibility and control necessary to manage rising costs, improve efficiency, and build resilience in a compute-heavy energy market? Let’s talk.
