Feb 28 (Reuters) - U.S. power company AES Corp AES.N on Friday forecast annual adjusted profit above Wall Street expectations, banking on contributions from new renewables projects and rate-base growth in its utilities segment.

Shares of the Virginia-based company rose 5.1% to $10.91 in premarket trading following the results.

Rising electricity demand and the challenges posed by extreme weather are prompting U.S. electric utilities to raise customer bills.

Higher base rates provide necessary funding for maintaining and upgrading grid infrastructure, which is currently facing an onslaught of power demand from data centers.

"We see strong demand from the growing needs of AI data centers and new manufacturing plants in the US, and we are well-placed to meet their demand for the shortest time to power," CEO Andres Gluski said.

AES said on Friday its Indiana unit has received approval from the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) to implement new base rates, supporting an investment program that will improve reliability for its customers.

The company's power purchase agreement backlog, which consists of projects that have signed contracts but are not yet operational, is at 11.9 gigawatts (GW), including 4.9 GW that is under construction.

AES posted an adjusted profit of 54 cents per share in the quarter ended December 31, beating analysts' average estimate of 34 cents, according to data compiled by LSEG.

However, the utility's fourth-quarter revenue marginally fell to $2.96 billion from $2.97 billion a year ago, due to lower sales at its energy infrastructure and renewables units.

Quarterly sales at its utilities segment rose about 11% to $878 million from a year earlier.

AES forecast its 2025 adjusted profit to be in the range of $2.10 and $2.26 per share.

Analysts on average were expecting an annual profit of $2.03 per share.

(Reporting by Pooja Menon in Bengaluru; Editing by Mohammed Safi Shamsi and Shreya Biswas)

((Pooja.Menon@thomsonreuters.com;))