Nov 6 (Reuters) - Electric utility Pinnacle West Capital ( PNW )

, which operates in Arizona through its unit Arizona

Public Service, said on Wednesday the state remains attractive

to big industrial customers and data centers that are looking to

purchase power.

The surge in AI has made data center operators hungry for

more power, pushing the U.S. power industry to expand rapidly

and sign lucrative deals with industrial customers.

Data centers are expected to account for 8% of the power

generated in the U.S. by 2030, compared with 3% in 2022,

according to a Goldman Sachs report in May.

"The state continues to be attractive for that load. We're

in good locations between Texas and California... we don't

really have hurricane type disruptions," Pinnacle said.

The utility said it is seeing a lot of pent-up demand from

both manufacturing and data centers.

"We've got over 4,000 megawatts of extra load factor

customers, including data centers that we've committed to that

are either in construction or development, coming online, or in

the early stages of planning," the company added.

Earlier, the company had posted a fall in third-quarter

profit as higher operating and maintenance costs offset gains

from favorable weather and more electricity usage.

The electric utility firm said its service areas experienced

record temperatures during the summer months, leading to higher

electricity consumption.

However, excessive heat along with persistent windy and dry

conditions also stoked wildfires across the U.S. Southwest in

July.

The Phoenix, Arizona-based company said net income

attributable to common shareholders declined slightly to $395

million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, from $398.2 million a

year earlier.