Feb 4 (Reuters) - WEC Energy Group WEC.N said on Tuesday its profit more than doubled in the fourth quarter, as the utility benefited from lower operating expenses and higher revenue.

The company provides electricity and gas to nearly 4.7 million customers in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota.

Power companies are set to benefit from a rise in electric usage, mainly fueled by artificial intelligence technology and data centers, and as homes and businesses increasingly use electricity for heat and transportation.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration $(EIA)$ expects power consumption to reach record highs in 2025. The S&P index tracking utilities .SPLRCU jumped 19.6% last year.

Data center power demand in the U.S. is expected to nearly triple in the next three years and consume as much as 12% of the country's electricity, according to a study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Residential power use rose 0.5% and electricity consumption by small commercial and industrial customers rose 0.7% in 2024, compared to a decline in 2023.

The Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based utility reported total operating expenses of $1.69 billion in the fourth quarter, a drop from $1.88 billion last year, and sales costs were down by about 3% to $738.4 million.

Revenue for the fourth quarter rose about 3% to $2.28 billion from a year earlier.

WEC reaffirmed its current-year earnings forecast in the range of $5.17 to $5.27 per share in 2025, the midpoint of which is in line with analysts' estimates, according to data compiled by LSEG.

The company's fourth-quarter net income rose to $453.5 million, or $1.43 per share, from $218.5 million, or 69 cents per share, a year ago.

(Reporting by Pooja Menon; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)

((Pooja.Menon@thomsonreuters.com))