Dominion beats quarterly profit estimates on higher Virginia power demand

May 1 (Reuters) - U.S. utility Dominion Energy D.N beat Wall Street estimates for first-quarter profit on Friday, driven by higher power demand from Virginia.

Power consumption in the U.S. hit its second straight record high in 2025 and is expected to rise further over the next two years, as data centers lift electricity usage out of two decades of flat demand.

The S&P 500 index tracking utilities .SPLRCU rose 7.5% in the quarter ended March 31.

Adjusted operating earnings from Dominion's Virginia segment rose 19.4% to $670 million in the first quarter, however, it fell 17.1% to $126 million at the South Carolina segment.

Richmond, Virginia-based Dominion Energy said it had contracted nearly 51 gigawatts (GW) of data center capacity as of March, up 2.5 GW from December.

Dominion's Virginia utility services the world's largest cluster of data centers, which has a bigger capacity than the next four largest global data center clusters combined, according to the company.

It posted quarterly revenue of $5.02 billion, up from $4.08 billion a year ago, beating analysts' average estimate of $4.51 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

The company reported earnings of 95 cents per share on an adjusted basis, compared with analysts' estimate of 91 cents per share.

The company affirmed its full-year 2026 operating earnings forecast of $3.45 to $3.69 per share.