As hyperscale data centers become commonplace, their call on the world's power grids may alter the trajectory of global demand as well as the energy transition.

U.S. data-center power demand could nearly triple in the next three years, and consume as much as 12% of the country's electricity, as the industry undergoes an artificial-intelligence transformation,

Ireland is a “microcosm of what many countries could be facing over the next decade,” said energy researcher Paul Deane of University College Cork.

A Department of Energy report estimates that data centers could use up to 12 percent of all electricity produced in the U.S. within the next few years.

A 12News analysis reveals the data center boom is the overwhelming cause of surging energy demand in the state. And it’s not even close. Arizona’s largest utility, APS, reports that a key metric of the power grid - “peak demand growth” – is rising at a rate 100 times faster for data centers than for all other types of power customers.