How much power does a data centre use?

Data centre power consumption ranges from under 1 MW for a small enterprise facility to 200+ MW for a hyperscale campus. A single standard server rack consumes 5-10 kW. An AI training rack with NVIDIA GPUs consumes 40-120+ kW. A typical 10 MW colocation facility powers roughly 1,000-2,000 standard racks or 80-250 high-density AI racks. Globally, data centres consumed approximately 460 TWh of electricity in 2025 - roughly 2% of total global electricity generation. This is projected to reach 1,000 TWh by 2030, driven primarily by AI workloads. Power availability has become the primary constraint on new data centre development, with transformer lead times extending to 36 months and utility interconnection queues in some markets stretching to 2030+.