May 7 (Reuters) - Sempra Energy posted a 17%

drop in first-quarter profit on Tuesday as it logged sharply

lower revenue from its natural gas operations, although

increases in its Texas power business helped cushion the fall.

Sempra ( SRE ), which supplies electricity and natural gas to nearly

40 million customers in parts of California, Texas and Mexico,

said revenue from its natural gas utilities fell more than 50%

from a year earlier to $2.11 billion.

Profit at the company's California utility dropped 5.8%,

while its electric sales fell to 935 million kilowatt hours

(kWh) from 1.6 billion kWh a year ago.

Sempra Infrastructure, the company's arm that develops,

invests and operates clean energy infrastructure, reported a 58%

fall in its quarterly earnings.

Oncor, Sempra's ( SRE ) Texas utility, however, posted a more than

twofold jump in its profit during the quarter, which helped to

limit overall losses.

Texas is seeing a jump in electricity demand from the

proliferation of bitcoin mining, data centers and the

electrification of the oil and gas business.

The Lone Star state's grid operator last month announced

that it expected a peak load of 152 gigawatts in 2030, or nearly

double the record.

"To put this growth in context, the change from 2023 to 2030

would be like adding load greater than the size of the entire

California power market," said Oncor Chief Executive Allen Nye,

who added that about 40% of that projected power load would come

from Oncor's coverage area.

Sempra's ( SRE ) net income fell to $801 million, or $1.26 per

share, for the quarter ended March 31, from $969 million, or

$1.53 per share, a year earlier.

Its total revenue came in at $3.64 billion, down from $6.56

billion last year.

The San Diego, California-based company expects its

full-year 2024 profit per share to be between $4.52 and $4.82.

It posted a profit of $4.79 per share in 2023.