How Data Center Power Demand Compares to U.S. Cities
Key Takeaways
- Meta’s planned Hyperion data center has a full-power annual energy equivalent of 43.8 TWh, approaching New York City’s electricity use.
- Amazon’s AWS Susquehanna Data Campus has an annual energy equivalent greater than Philadelphia’s electricity consumption.
- Vantage’s Port Washington campus could have an annual energy equivalent roughly four times Madison’s electricity use.
Data centers are drawing increasing scrutiny across the United States as their electricity and water requirements grow alongside the country’s AI infrastructure buildout.
This visualization compares three major planned data centers with six U.S. city electricity benchmarks. Data comes from 2026 corporate and regulatory filings, as well as the latest published consumption figures from city press offices.
All figures are in terawatt-hours (TWh), a standard unit of electrical energy. Because the data centers are planned or under development, their figures assume continuous operation at stated future power levels rather than forecasting actual electricity consumption.
Meta’s Manhattan in the Bayou
Facebook parent company Meta is planning a massive data center in Louisiana. Hyperion, as the project has been nicknamed, is set to have an annual energy equivalent of 43.8 TWh at full operation.
That would be nearly eight times the 5.6 TWh of electricity consumed by New Orleans in 2025. Perhaps even more strikingly, Hyperion’s annual equivalent would sit just below New York City’s forecast annual electricity use of 46.9 TWh.
The table below compares data centers’ annual energy equivalents with U.S. city-level electricity benchmarks.
| City / Planned Data Center | State | Annual power equivalent (TWh) |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
 New York City |
NY | 46.88 | NYISO Zone J, 2025 forecast update |
 Meta Hyperion |
LA | 43.80 | Richland Parish, based on full expansion |
| Phoenix |
AZ | 17.50 | Citywide electricity consumption, 2022 |
| AWS Susquehanna Data Campus |
PA | 16.82 | Ramp to full volume by 2032 |
| Philadelphia |
PA | 13.10 | Green House Gas inventory, 2022 |
| Vantage / Stargate Port Washington |
WI | 11.39 | Planned utility-forecast demand through 2030 |
| Sacramento |
CA | 10.51 | Municipal Utility District retail system, 2025 |
| New Orleans |
LA | 5.60 | Service territory, 2025 |
| Madison |
WI | 2.80 | Community inventory, 2022 |
The New York comparison is particularly fitting. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in July 2025 that the $50 billion facility would span nearly the size of Manhattan.
Hyperion, formally known as the Richland Parish Data Center, is expected to partially come online by 2030 before reaching full build-out in 2032.
Amazon’s $20 Billion Pennsylvania Bet
At full capacity, the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Susquehanna Data Campus will reportedly have an annual energy equivalent of 16.8 TWh—roughly 30% more than Philadelphia’s 13.1 TWh of electricity use in 2022.
The Susquehanna facility is part of Amazon’s larger $20 billion investment in digital infrastructure in Pennsylvania. Governor Josh Shapiro described the investment by the world’s largest company by revenue as the biggest capital investment in state history.
Another notable feature is the campus’s proximity to the Susquehanna nuclear power plant. Amazon’s plans to source power from the neighboring facility have faced regulatory scrutiny from federal authorities.
Under an agreement between AWS and the nuclear plant’s operator, the data center would obtain roughly 40% of the plant’s energy output, enough to power more than half a million homes.
Wisconsin’s New Capital
Vantage’s Port Washington campus in Wisconsin is part of the $500 billion Stargate initiative involving major technology firms including SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle. The campus’s 11.4 TWh annual energy equivalent would be roughly four times Madison’s 2.8 TWh electricity benchmark.
Another useful comparison is the Sacramento area. Port Washington’s annual equivalent would be about 8% higher than the 10.5 TWh of annual electricity sales reported by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), which serves Sacramento and surrounding communities.
With a total price tag of $15 billion, the Port Washington data center is expected to be completed in 2028. It will add to the United States’ existing global lead in the number of data centers.
Learn More on the Voronoi App
For a broader look at global data center electricity demand, check out How Much Electricity Are AI Data Centers Consuming? on Voronoi.
