Global electricity demand reached a record 31,779 TWh in 2025, rising 2.8 % year on year, or 849 TWh. This growth is broadly in line with the ten-year average of 2.7 % recorded between 2015 and 2024, according to Ember’s Global Electricity Review.
The report notes that although temperatures in 2025 remained high, they did not lead to additional cooling demand compared to the heatwave-driven spike seen in the previous year. This helped moderate the overall growth rate.
China remained the main driver of global demand growth for the tenth consecutive year, adding 503 TWh, or 5.0 %, and accounting for 59 % of the total global increase. However, this still marked a slowdown from 2024, when growth reached 6.7 %, reflecting milder weather conditions and weaker industrial demand growth, which fell from 5.1 % to 3.7 %.
China’s electricity consumption now totals 10,573 TWh, more than double that of the United States at 4,536 TWh and around five times India’s 2,083 TWh.
Electrification trends also contributed to rising demand. Electric vehicles added around 66 TWh in 2025, representing 8 % of global demand growth, up from 46 TWh the previous year due to record EV sales.
Data centres are also becoming a key factor. The International Energy Agency estimates they added about 60 TWh, or 7 % of demand growth in 2025. Demand from data centres is expected to grow four times faster than overall electricity use, reaching around 950 TWh by 2030.
Despite this growth, data centres are still expected to account for less than 3 % of global electricity demand by 2030, although their impact will be more concentrated in certain regions, particularly in Asia.
Source: Asian Power
