July 31 (Reuters) - U.S. utility Dominion Energy ( D )

reported better-than-expected second-quarter profit and revenue

on Friday, as stronger power demand in its Virginia business

helped offset a 53% increase in operating expenses.

Adjusted operating earnings from Dominion's Virginia segment

rose 22% to $670 million during the quarter, while overall

operating expenses surged to $4.15 billion from $2.71 billion

last year, as utilities continued to spend more on fuel, grid

upgrades and maintenance to support growing electricity demand.

Here are more details:

* Utilities are seeing a renewed growth cycle in electricity

demand, led by power-hungry data centers supporting artificial

intelligence workloads, particularly in Virginia, home to the

world's largest data center market.

* Dominion's quarterly revenue rose to $4.48 billion, from

$3.81 billion a year ago, beating analysts' average estimate of

$4.04 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

* Adjusted operating earnings from its South Carolina

segment fell about 3.7% to $105 million in the quarter ended

June 30.

* The Richmond, Virginia-based company posted adjusted

earnings of 79 cents per share, topping expectations of 68 cents

per share.

* Dominion said its Virginia segment had contracted nearly

53.8 gigawatts (GW) of data center capacity as of July, up 5.3

GW from December.

* In May, Dominion and NextEra Energy ( NEE ) announced

their $66.8 billion merger deal that will form one of the

world's largest electric utilities.

* Dominion supplies electricity to 3.6 million customers

across Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, and natural

gas to 500,000 customers in South Carolina.