Global electricity demand hits record 31,779 TWh in 2025, but growth pace eases

China led global demand growth for the tenth consecutive year.

Global electricity demand reached a new record of 31,779 terrawat-hour in 2025, growing 2.8% (+849 TWh) year on year, though broadly in line with the ten-year average of 2.7% annual growth from 2015 to 2024, according to Ember's Global Electricity Review.

The report said one factor is that temperatures in 2025 remained similarly elevated to 2024 but produced no net incremental cooling demand, unlike the heatwave-driven spike the prior year.

China led global demand growth for the tenth consecutive year, adding 503 TWh (+5.0%) to account for 59% of the entire net global increase.

Yet this marked a deceleration from 2024's 6.7% growth, driven by milder temperatures and a slowdown in industrial sector demand from 5.1% to 3.7%.

Moreover, China's electricity sector now stands at 10,573 TWh, more than double that of the United States (4,536 TWh) and five times that of India (2,083 TWh).

Further, electric vehicles contributed roughly 66 TWh, or 8% of global demand growth in 2025, up from 46 TWh in 2024, on the back of record EV sales.

Data centres are emerging as an equally significant variable, with the International Energy Agency estimating data centres added approximately 60 TWh — around 7% of demand growth — in 2025.

IEA projections forecast data centre demand growing four times faster than overall electricity demand, from roughly 500 TWh in 2025 to around 950 TWh by 2030.

Even so, data centres would represent less than 3% of global electricity demand by 2030 at that pace, though regional concentration means the impact on specific grids — particularly in Asia — will be considerably more pronounced.