Power tops US site-selection factors in consultants' survey as data center demand strains utilities

Electric power was cited by 79% of site-selection consultants as a top factor in U.S. location decisions this year, ahead of labor availability and geopolitics at 50%, Bisnow reported. More than half of those consultants said a lack of power was a leading reason to remove a site from consideration altogether, according to the 2026 survey of the Site Selectors Guild's 72 members.

Power's move to the top breaks a two-year pattern. In 2025, tariff-related policies led at 87%, followed by utility and infrastructure capacity at 66%. In 2024, workforce availability led at 76%, with utility and infrastructure capacity again second at 74%.

Data center construction is fueling electricity demand, and automation and robotics in industrial facilities increasingly require it as well.

Goldman Sachs Research projects power demand to more than double from 31 gigawatts in 2025 to 66 gigawatts by 2027.

"It's not just data centers. It's industrial. It's everything," said Ellen Smith, a land use attorney and partner at law firm Parker Poe. "It's really a shift in how people are considering projects. And nobody is using less energy."

"The need for power is just off the charts," said Grady Fitzpatrick, chief business development officer at Greater New Orleans Inc., an economic development agency. "There's just so much backlog with the utilities trying to keep up."

Barry Broome, CEO of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council, said cost and talent still drive decisions but power now carries far heavier weight. Local governments are spending more effort proving that sites can meet power needs, even as public opposition to data centers and other power-demanding projects can knock sites out of contention.

The survey measures what site-selection consultants say drives location choices, not what investors would pay for a finished site.