Feb 20 (Reuters) - U.S. utility CenterPoint Energy ( CNP )

on Thursday added $500 million to its 10-year capital

expenditure plan to strengthen its electricity grid to handle

the surging demand for power from new data centers.

Power demand from U.S. data centers is expected to nearly

triple in the next three years and consume as much as 12% of the

total electricity produced, according to a study by Lawrence

Berkeley National Laboratory.

CenterPoint expects demand to jump nearly 50% by 2031 in the

Houston electric service territory, and on Thursday increased

its capital plan through 2030 to $47.5 billion to improve grid

resilience.

"Like our peers, we have experienced an unprecedented level

of interest in connecting to our grid...we have received

approximately 40 gigawatts in load interconnection requests,"

CenterPoint CFO Christopher Foster said in a conference call.

Peers Dominion Energy ( D ), Duke Energy ( DUK ) and DTE

Energy ( DTE ) also raised their capital expenditure plans over

the last month to accommodate the rising power demand from data

centers.

Utilities were among the biggest winners in the S&P 500 last

year on expectations of surging demand from data centers. The

S&P index tracking utilities rose 19.6% in 2024.

CenterPoint also reaffirmed its 2025 profit forecast between

$1.74 and $1.76 per share after matching Wall Street

expectations for fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of 40 cents

per share.

The company's quarterly net income rose to $248 million, or

38 cents per share, from $192 million, or 30 cents per share, a

year earlier.

(Reporting by Pooja Menon in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo

and Sriraj Kalluvila)