Aug 1 (Reuters) - AES Corp ( AES ) beat Wall Street

estimates for second-quarter profit on Thursday, as the electric

utility benefited from customers using more electricity to deal

with a hot summer and new renewables projects.

The Virginia-based company saw considerable growth in its

renewables unit last year, benefiting from a global push to

adopt cleaner power generation methods.

A heat wave swept across the contiguous U.S. in June, with

record-setting temperatures affecting many regions, and lifted

cooling demand for utilities such as AES ( AES ).

Its adjusted core profit during the second quarter rose to

$652 million, compared with $569 million last year.

However, its total revenue declined by 2.8% to $2.94

billion due to lower regulated contract sales and prices.

AES ( AES ) also said that since its earnings call earlier this

year, it had signed 2.2 gigawatts of new agreements with data

center hyper scalers, and its backlog of signed power purchase

agreements is now 12.6 GW.

Power demand in the U.S. is expected to record new highs

this year, driven by energy-hungry data centers that are needed

to feed the growing AI industry.

The company also said it expects to achieve the upper half

of its 2024 adjusted earnings forecast range of $1.87 to $1.97

per share.

AES ( AES ) reported adjusted earnings of 38 cents per share,

beating analysts' estimate of 37 cents per share, according to

LSEG data.