Pakistan, May 10 -- Millions of Americans are increasingly paying for electricity infrastructure projects long before completion, as utilities begin recovering costs for power plants and transmission lines through early billing systems. Policy makers support this approach to speed up upgrades to the aging US electric grid, especially amid rising energy demand from data centers powering artificial intelligence systems. Moreover, this shift has raised concerns about higher household electricity bills without immediate benefits.

Traditionally, utility companies first borrowed money from banks and investors to fund large infrastructure projects and only recovered costs after completion and service delivery. However, regulators now allow earl...