NEW YORK, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Talen Energy ( TLN ) is

focused on capturing surging demand from data center developers

as the independent power company looks to pivot away from its

crypto mining operation, company executives said on a conference

call on Tuesday.

Talen is among a group of U.S. electric companies benefiting

from the power needs of artificial intelligence and cloud

computing data centers, with shares of the company rising nearly

100% since the start of the year.

Reuters reported this month that Talen was in a process to

sell its bitcoin mining center at the site of a Pennsylvania

nuclear power plant

"It's not a strategic asset for us and we are looking at

what are the other alternatives with respect to coin," Talen

Energy ( TLN ) Chief Executive Officer Mark McFarland said on a

second-quarter earnings call.

Talen raised its earnings and free cash flow forecasts for

the year as it benefits from higher power use and prices, bigger

payments from the regional grid operator PJM and a payout for a

data center sold to Amazon ( AMZN ) early this year.

(Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Emelia

Sithole-Matarise)