AI Boom Puts Pressure on China’s Power Grid as Data Centers Eat Up Electricity
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China’s data centers consumed 140 billion kWh in 2024.
China’s rapidly expanding artificial intelligence (AI) industry is eating up electricity at an alarming rate — a factor analysts say could disrupt the country’s power grid if infrastructure doesn’t keep pace.
By 2035, China’s data centers will consume 400 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity a year — around four times their 2024 usage, Bloomberg analyst Lv Jinghong estimated at the BloombergNEF Summit in Beijing Thursday. That will account for 3.2% of national power consumption, comparable to the entire electricity usage of Sichuan province.
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- China's AI industry is significantly increasing electricity consumption, with data centers expected to use 400 billion kWh by 2035, representing 3.2% of national power usage.
- The increase in energy use is driven by AI model training and cooling systems, with PUE improving from 1.7 in 2016 to 1.48 in 2023.
- Green initiatives and site selection changes, like East-data-West-computing, aim to support power needs sustainably, though most centers still depend on purchased green power.
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What Happened When
- 2022：
- China's East-data-West-computing initiative was launched to redirect data center development to regions with cooler climates and abundant wind and solar energy.
- 2023：
- The average Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) in China was reduced to 1.48.
- As of 2024：
- China's data centers consumed 140 billion kWh, representing about 1.4% of total electricity usage.
- November 2024：
- Tencent Holdings Ltd. launched China's first integrated wind-solar-storage microgrid data center in Hebei province.
- December 2024：
- China Unicom began construction on a green microgrid project in Qinghai province.
- March 18, 2025：
- Five agencies released new guidelines calling for further increases in green power usage at data center hubs.
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