July 25 (Reuters) - U.S. electric and gas utility DTE

Energy Co ( DTE ) beat second-quarter profit estimates on

Thursday on higher summer electricity demand, while the company

continued talks with data center developers about adding

possible gigawatts of new demand.

DTE Energy ( DTE ), which is based in Detroit, benefited from

hot temperatures and higher supply rates in the three months

ended on June 30. That boosted earnings at the company's

electric unit by 56.7% to $279 million in the June-end quarter.

Strength in the power segment, which serves 2.3 million

customers in Southeast Michigan, helped combat weakness in the

company's natural gas and non-utility units.

"DTE's solid financial performance allows us to keep

investing to improve how we produce and deliver energy for

customers," CFO David Ruud said.

The company plans to invest more than $4 billion this year

to upgrade its electric and gas grids, and has already shelled

out more than $2 billion during the first half of the year.

Company executives, meanwhile, said they were in touch

with data center developers about the possibility of building

the giant computer warehouses, which are needed to expand

artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

"We're seeing demand numbers in the thousands of

megawatts," said DTE Energy ( DTE ) Chief Financial Officer David Ruud,

who added that the Detroit area's lack of natural disasters,

climate and power prices were attracting data center developer

interest.

Data centers is quickly driving up U.S. electricity

consumption growth, but it is still unclear where the bulk of

the new demand will be located.

DTE posted operating earnings of $1.43 per share in the

second quarter, above analysts' average estimate of $1.21,

according to LSEG data.