AI in the energy system
https://www.bp.com/press-and-publications/energy-outlook/ai-in-the-energy-system
Publish Date: 2026-06-10 01:14:00
Source Domain: www.bp.com
The impact of AI on the global energy system
Increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) is boosting the electricity demand of data centres. AI may have much more widespread impacts on the energy system over time, however, affecting both energy supply and also economy-wide energy demand
Energy demands of AI
Growing power demand from data centres, driven in large part by rising use of AI, is likely to provide a material boost to electricity demand, albeit to differing degrees in different regions and countries.
In Current Trajectory, growth in data centres’ use of electricity accounts for around a tenth of global power demand growth out to 2035. But that impact differs substantially across regions: for example, rising data centre demand accounts for 40% of overall US power demand growth over the next decade (see Power sector).
Any such projections of the power demand of data centres are highly uncertain, however. In part their demand will depend on the evolution and rate of adoption of AI. But it will also depend crucially on the energy efficiency of data centres, which has risen dramatically over recent years: digital data traffic rose more than 25-fold between 2010 and 2024, but the energy use of data centres rose only two-fold over that period.
While some of the drivers of those past efficiency improvements – for example the widespread shifts from on-premises data centres to the cloud – may not have much further to run, other innovations, including continuing advances in chip design and AI programming, are likely to drive more improvements in the energy efficiency of data centres in the coming years.
Impacts of AI on the energy sector
The demand for electricity of data centres is only one narrow aspect of the likely impacts of AI on the global energy sector, however. AI may over time have significant impacts on the supply of energy, too.
AI is already being widely used in the oil and gas industry, for example improving and accelerating exploration through…
