Aug 9 (Reuters) - Electric utility Evergy ( EVRG ) beat

Wall Street estimates for second-quarter profit on Friday,

helped by strong electricity demand during the summer months and

higher retail rates.

Customers cranked up their air conditioners and

refrigerators to deal with the record-breaking hot temperatures

during the April-June quarter.

Evergy's ( EVRG ) electric retail revenue rose nearly 8% to $1.21

billion, while total revenue rose about 7% to $1.45 billion in

the quarter ended June 30, led by higher residential retail

sales.

However, it did see a 7.1% rise in operating costs, led

by transmission and operating and maintenance expenses.

Evergy ( EVRG ) expects to benefit from a surge in demand for power

driven primarily by AI technology, data centers and EVs, as

investors look beyond semiconductors to bet on firms catering to

the AI boom in any capacity.

"We are very excited to work with these potential customers

as they consider our region, building on our successes with the

Panasonic electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant and the

Meta and Google data centers," said CEO David Campbell.

Together, the three projects represent 750 megawatts

(MW) of load for the company.

The company provides energy to 1.7 million customers in

Kansas and Missouri, through its operating subsidiaries Evergy

Kansas Central, Evergy Metro, and Evergy Missouri West.

The Kansas City, Missouri-based company posted an adjusted

profit of 90 cents per share in the reported quarter, compared

with analysts' estimates of 89 cents per share according to LSEG

data.