Asia Pacific will drive 85% of global power demand growth.
Data centres and AI accelerate electricity consumption across the region.
Grid constraints and gas turbine bottlenecks pose supply-side challenges.
Asia Pacific is expected to account for 85% of global power demand growth in 2026, adding an estimated 790 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity consumption, as data centres, policy shifts and supply-chain constraints reshape the region’s power and renewable landscape, reported Down To Earth citing a report by Wood Mackenzie.
The report stated that while record-breaking wind and solar installations took place in 2025, 2026 will be defined by market maturation, regulatory recaliberation and emerging bottlenecks in conventional generation, particularly gas turbines.
3 February 2026
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“Data centres are no longer just a niche load; they are the primary driver of transformational demand across Asia Pacific,” Yanqi Cao, Senior Analyst, Asia Pacific told Down To Earth.
Data Centres Drive Demand
The rapid deployment of and dependence on artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure is altering electricity demand patterns. While the United States and Europe are expected to account for 9% and 5% of global power demand growth in 2026 respectively, Asia Pacific remains the dominant growth engine.
According to another report by KPMG, India’s plans to amplify data centre facilities to create an infrastructure that will support India’s trillion-dollar digital economy, are creating a massive demand for new data center capacity.
Projections of industry analaysts forecast that the total installed power of India’s data centers will reach over 2GW by 2026 from a current level of over 1GW, stated the KPMG report.
“This is a very significant build-out, and industry analysts believe that India’s data center capacity will grow fivefold by 2030 to over 8GW. This growth is expected to generate over $30 Bn in capital expenditures,” the report added.
Asia Pacific’s contribution to a growing global power demand in 2026 is not just related to data centres and AI-led cloud expansion but also of structural shifts in the region’s urbanisation and electrification efforts. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), electricity demand in emerging Asian economies is being propelled by rapid growth in electric mobility, industrial electrification, growing cooling needs.
Grid Strain Ahead
According to a 2025 IEA report, most additional demand for electricity out to 2027 will come from emerging economies, which are expected to make up 85% of the growth—a regional trend that aligns with Asia Pacific’s growing power needs.
