by Evan Patz
This map compares electricity-demand hotspots with population centers, revealing how data centers are pulling power away from cities and concentrating load in areas that were, until recently, quiet corners of the grid. The result is a view of an American power grid quietly reshaping itself around the demands of the cloud.
The divergence layer uses a regression of energy density against population density to highlight counties drawing more power than their population alone would predict. Toggle to electricity density or population density views to explore the raw layers. Both are normalized by county area (MW/km² and people/km²). To estimate electricity usage by county, utility service-area boundaries were overlaid with county polygons in QGIS, and peak electricity load was distributed to each county by intersection area, since utility territories don't align with county lines.