Los Angeles County, California: Power, Data Centers and the Local Economy

Los Angeles County is home to Los Angeles, Long Beach, Santa Clarita and Glendale, plus the unincorporated community of Marina del Rey.

And 16 smaller places.

Unincorporated communities (governed by the county): Marina del Rey, Acton, Agua Dulce, Alondra Park, Altadena, Avocado Heights, Castaic, Charter Oak, Citrus, Del Aire, Desert View Highlands, East Los Angeles, East Pasadena, East Rancho Dominguez, East San Gabriel, East Whittier, Elizabeth Lake, Florence-Graham, Green Valley, Hacienda Heights, Hasley Canyon, La Crescenta-Montrose, Ladera Heights, Lake Hughes, Lake Los Angeles, Lennox, Leona Valley, Littlerock, Mayflower Village, North El Monte, Pepperdine University, Quartz Hill, Rose Hills, Rowland Heights, San Pasqual, South Monrovia Island, South San Gabriel, South San Jose Hills, South Whittier, Stevenson Ranch and 14 more.

Residents are 2025 Census estimates for the part of each city, town or township inside this county. Census publishes no annual estimate for unincorporated communities.

Owners plan to retire 1,442 MW more by 2035, led by AES Alamitos LLC in 2026. 1,236 MW of new generation is planned here across 25 units, led by San Gabriel Project LLC (battery storage), the 5th largest pipeline among California's counties. 839 MW of it is already under construction or built. The Moratorium Tracker holds 2 local measures here (0 in force); the latest is “Interim prohibition on large-scale data centers in unincorporated areas”. 2 projects are on the Delay Watchlist, including Eight Form El Segundo Data Center (750 N. Nash Street). Construction employs 146,134, down 2.4% since 2019. Electrical contractors employ 19,529, up 0.9% since 2019 against up 8.5% statewide, at an average $92,234 a year. Southern California Edison Co is the largest utility serving Los Angeles County, one of 7 with territory here. Its residential customers paid an average 32.43¢/kWh in 2024, above the 20.66¢ median for California utilities. Unemployment was 4.9% in August 2026, against 4.5% in 2019. Employers here counted 4,525,460 jobs in 2025, up 0.3% from 2019. 9,694,934 people live here, down 3.0% since 2020, 1st of 58 California counties by population.

Utilities with service territory in Los Angeles County

Customer counts, prices and sales shares cover each utility's whole system in the state, not only this county. Commercial sales include data centers.

Operating power plants 252

Planned generation 25

Retired since 2019

Scheduled to retire

Concentration is the BLS location quotient: 1.0 means the industry holds the same share of local jobs as it does nationally. Industry rows count private employers; cells BLS suppresses are left out.

77 data centers in Los Angeles County are on the SAVRN Data Center Map: see them by city and operator.

Local measures 2

Delay Watchlist 2

Of the 4 counties that border Los Angeles County, Kern County carries the most build-out activity: data centers, planned generation and operating plants combined.