Feb 18 (Reuters) - U.S. utility Constellation Energy CEG.O beat Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday, benefiting from lower expenses and rising demand for power.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration $(EIA)$ expects power consumption to reach record highs in 2025, with demand from data centers expected to nearly triple in the next three years.

Driven by the unprecedented power demand, nuclear utilities were among the biggest winners in the S&P 500 last year. The S&P 500 utilities sector .SPLRCU rose 19.6% in 2024, while Constellation Energy rose 91.3%.

In January, Constellation, which operates 21 nuclear power plants in the country, agreed to buy natural gas and geothermal company Calpine Corp for $16.4 billion, marking one of the biggest U.S. power industry acquisitions.

"Independent of our pending acquisition of Calpine, Constellation will invest over $2.5 billion in 2025 to reliably operate our business for the long-term and fund our growth investments to help meet growing power demand," Constellation CFO Dan Eggers said in a statement on Tuesday.

The utility forecast full-year adjusted operating earnings in the range of $8.90 per share to $9.60 per share, while analysts were expecting $9.17 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG.

The company's total operating expenses fell 23.6% to $4.48 billion in the October-December quarter, from a year ago.

The Baltimore, Maryland-based utility posted adjusted operating profit of $2.44 per share in the quarter ended December 31, beating analysts' average estimate of $2.15 per share.

(Reporting by Pooja Menon in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)

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