Digital transformation has given enterprises new development momentum, which further affects the business performance of private energy enterprises and the achievement of their green and low-carbon transformation goals. Based on the data of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed private energy enterprises from 2012 to 2021, this paper collects the keywords of “digital transformation” in the annual reports of enterprises with the help of crawler technology, innovatively portraying the degree of digital transformation of private energy enterprises and empirically examining the impact of digital transformation on the performance of private energy enterprises. The results indicate that digital transformation significantly improves the performance of private energy firms, and this finding remains valid after a series of robustness checks. In terms of channel paths, digital transformation can drive technological innovation and improve operational capabilities, all of which contribute to the performance growth of private energy firms. For different firms, the driving effect of digital transformation on the performance of private energy firms has strong asymmetric characteristics. Specifically, the enhancement effect is more significant for eastern firms, large firms, growing firms, and new energy firms. For the central and western firms and small firms, the performance driving effect of digital transformation is the least significant.