NEW YORK, May 7 (Reuters) - Duke Energy ( DUK ) is

pursuing electricity supply contract terms with data centers

that include take-or-pay and up-front infrastructure build out

payments to guard against volatility in the energy-intensive

computing industry, its chief financial officer told Reuters on

Tuesday.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based utility is

requesting so-called "minimum take" clauses that require the

centers to pay for a certain amount of power regardless of how

much it uses, CFO Brian Savoy said. The company is also

considering agreements that would require up-front contributions

to build new power infrastructure for the centers.

"A few years ago, I would say these concepts weren't

embraced by data centers or large loads because the power supply

was more plentiful," Savoy said. "Now, with a constrained power

supply, they understand this is what it's going to take to get

in the game."

So far this year, Duke has not signed a new data center

customer, but it did execute a minimum take agreement with

another large load customer, Savoy said.

Some analyst expect electricity demand from data centers

to double by the end of the decade, and Duke is among several

U.S. electric utilities that have recently revised upwards

demand growth forecasts in the face new data center demand.

Data centers were a top driver of Duke's 3.5% commercial

load growth in first three months of the year.

By 2028, data centers are expected to make up 25% of 18,000

gigawatt hours (GWh) Duke projects in new load from customers,

including industrial and commercial businesses. Duke this month

increased that figure by 2,000 GWh from February projections.

Many of the utilities will have to build new and expensive

infrastructure to accommodate the increasing electricity load,

adding expenses that could be subsidized by other homes and

businesses.

Earlier this year, Duke boosted its capital expenditure

guidance plans by $8 billion to $73 billion, an $8 billion amid

projected a jump in demand growth in 2024.

Take-or-pay agreements are among the contract terms intended

to provide a buffer between the growing investment in power

build-outs for businesses and rising power bills for common

customers.

Duke is also seeing requests for larger electricity capacity

for each center development, Savoy said. Where a typical data

center in Duke's territory has been around 300-to-400 megawatts,

new developments are aiming for 700 megawatts-to-2 gigawatts of

capacity, he said.

"The data center developers will size the facility to the

capacity will offer them," Savoy said.