This Week in Trades, June 1, 2026

Data Center Servers Will Take Up to a Third of Commercial Building Power by 2050

33%. Data center servers will consume between 22% and 33% of all U.S. commercial building electricity by 2050, up from an estimated 7% in 2025, according to the Energy Information Administration's Annual Energy Outlook 2026.

The raw numbers are large. Server electricity use alone reaches between 446 and 818 billion kilowatt-hours by 2050. Standalone data centers account for 581 billion kilowatt-hours of that in the high-demand case. Cooling adds more on top, EIA assumes data center floorspace is up to 2.9 times as cooling-intensive as ordinary commercial space.

Commercial electricity intensity crosses its 2003 record of 14.9 kilowatt-hours per square foot for the first time in 2031 and 2032, driven by servers and the systems that keep them cool.

For electricians, this is the demand curve behind the hiring. Every one of those buildings needs medium-voltage switchgear, feeders, and large cooling loads wired and maintained by licensed workers. The work is commercial, high-voltage, and credentialed.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration

Summer Electricity Demand Is Climbing, and Texas Is Leading the Build

2%. Overall U.S. electricity demand will rise about 2% this summer, and the EIA expects power-sector natural gas use to set a record next summer at 46.1 billion cubic feet per day.

The growth is concentrated. Commercial and industrial electricity demand in the West South Central region, anchored by Texas, will climb 20% from the summer of 2025 to the summer of 2027. To meet it, ERCOT, the grid that covers most of Texas, will raise natural gas generation 22% over the same period. New data centers and large manufacturing plants in Texas and Virginia are driving the load.

Renewables keep gaining too. EIA forecasts they will supply 25% of summer generation in 2027, up from 21% in 2025.

For electricians, rising load means grid work: substations, transmission, generator interconnects, and plant electrical. Texas and Virginia are the hottest markets right now. Licensing rules differ by state, see how yours compares at compare-states.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration

Construction Spending Hit a $2.17 Trillion Annual Rate in April

$2.17 trillion. U.S. construction spending reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2,172.4 billion in April, 0.9% above April 2025, according to the Census Bureau report released June 1.

The mix matters for electricians. Private residential construction ran at a $909.9 billion annual rate, up 0.8% from March. Public construction hit $532.7 billion, up 0.4%, with highway work at $149.6 billion. Private nonresidential slipped 0.2% to $729.8 billion, a small pullback in offices, warehouses, and similar projects.

So the total sits near a record pace, with homes and public infrastructure pulling ahead while commercial building cools slightly.

For electricians, the signal is steady demand with a shift. Residential rewires, service upgrades, and public projects, schools, highways, water systems, are where the volume is right now. Nonresidential is softer but still enormous at roughly three-quarters of a trillion dollars a year.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

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