Feb 24 (Reuters) - NRG Energy NRG.N beat Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday, as the utility was helped by rising demand for power, sending its shares up 1.7% in premarket trading.

U.S. power demand reached record highs in 2025 and is projected to grow even faster as major tech companies increase consumption at their rapidly expanding data centers, some of which use as much electricity as an entire city at a single location.

NRG is positioned to benefit significantly from the surge in power demand in Texas, which is one of the biggest data center markets in the country.

CEO Larry Coben said the company doubled its generation footprint and added three Texas generation projects totaling 1.5  gigawatts. The utility also expects to add significant new capacity for data centers, he said.

NRG provides power to over 8 million customers including homes and businesses across the U.S. and Canada through its portfolio of power generation, natural gas, and smart energy solutions.

The utility also said on Tuesday it completed its $12 billion acquisition of power generation assets from LS Power in January.

The Houston, Texas-based firm posted an adjusted profit of $1.04 per share in the quarter, compared with analysts' estimates of 96 cents per share, according to data compiled by LSEG.

(Reporting by Pranav Mathur in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)

((Pranav.Mathur@thomsonreuters.com;))