27 states let utilities shut off electricity for non-payment during heat waves

From coast to coast, millions of Americans are experiencing sweltering temperatures this summer, with seemingly little relief in sight. For those struggling to access or afford air conditioning, the growing need for relief is a growing crisis.

An alarming number of Americans are at risk of losing access to utilities because they can’t pay their bills. Energy providers cut off electricity to at least 3 million customers in 2022 after they missed a bill payment. More than 30% of those shutoffs occurred during the three summer months, during a year that was among the warmest on record.

In some cases, the loss of service lasted only a few hours. But in other cases, people were without electricity for days or weeks as they tried to find enough money to restore service, often only to be disconnected again.

As researchers who study energy justice and energy insecurity, we believe the United States is in the midst of a decoupling crisis. We have begun tracking these decouplings, utility by utility across the country, and we believe the crisis will only worsen as the impacts of climate change become more widespread and severe.

We believe it is time for government agencies and utilities to consider household energy security as a national priority.

1 in 4 households struggle with energy insecurity

Americans often think of the loss of electricity as something irregular and temporary. For most, it is a rare inconvenience caused by a heat wave or storm.

But for millions of American households, the risk of running out of power is a constant worry. According to the most recent data from the US Energy Information Administration, 1 in 4 American households experience some form of energy insecurity each year, with no significant improvement over the past decade.

For many low-income households, the risk of power outages comes month after month. In a recent study, we found that half of all households whose power was shut off experienced multiple shutoffs over the course of a year as they struggled to pay their bills.

Energy insecurity like this is particularly prevalent among low-income Americans, people of color, families with young children, people who rely on electronic medical devices, or people living in poor housing conditions. During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, we found that Black and Hispanic households were three and four times more likely to lose service, respectively, than white households.

In addition to existing financial constraints, people are facing rising electricity rates in many areas, rising inflation, and higher temperatures that require cooling. Some are also dealing with a history of redlining and poor urban planning that has concentrated certain populations in less efficient housing. All in all, the crisis is clear.

Coping strategies can endanger health

We found that over half of all low-income households use some kind of coping strategy, and most of them find they need to use multiple strategies at once.

They might leave the air conditioner off in the summer, letting the heat reach uncomfortable and potentially unsafe temperatures to cut costs. Or they might forgo food or medicine to pay their utility bills, or strategically pay one bill instead of another, known as “balancing bills.” Others turn to payday loans, which may help temporarily but ultimately drive them deeper into debt. In our research, we’ve found that the most common coping strategies are also the riskiest.

If people fall behind on their bills, they run the risk of having their utility companies cut them off.

Loss of essential energy services can mean that affected people can’t keep their homes cool — or warm in the winter months — or keep food refrigerated in any season. Shutdowns can mean that people with illnesses or disabilities can’t keep medications refrigerated or medical devices charged. And in times of extreme cold or heat, the loss of energy services can have deadly consequences.

Where closing rates are highest

Our research team developed the Utility Disconnections Dashboard, which tracks utility disconnections wherever data is available.

In recent years, more states have required regulated utilities across the country to disclose the number of customers they disconnect. However, state regulations apply only to the utilities they regulate. Public utilities and cooperatives, which serve more than 20% of U.S. electricity customers, are often not covered. That leaves huge gaps in understanding the full scope of the problem.

The data we do have shows that disconnection rates skyrocket in the summer months and are typically highest in the Southeast. Large investor-owned utilities in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Indiana have average disconnection rates of nearly 1% of customers, with some urban utilities even higher.

Only 23 states restrict summer closures

State utility commissions place certain restrictions on the circumstances under which utilities can disconnect customers, but the summer heat is often overlooked.

All but a handful of states restrict utilities from disconnecting customers during the winter months or on extremely cold days. Most have at least some medical exemptions.

Yet more than half of states do not restrict utility shutoffs during the summer months or on very hot days.

Only 23 states and the District of Columbia have such summer protections. They typically take the form of designating time periods or temperatures during which customers cannot be disconnected from their service. Virginia became the most recent state to adopt such a policy, with protections set to take effect July 1, 2024.

We believe it is unsustainable for states to fail to provide temperature protection in an era of climate change, as more and more parts of the country experience extremely hot days.

These state-level policies provide basic protections. As we learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, moratoria that prohibit utility shutoffs can help alleviate energy insecurity.

But these policies vary widely from country to country, and details about customer protections can be difficult for people to find and understand.

Better rules and a new mindset on the right to energy

We believe the US needs more robust customer protections, with states, and perhaps even the federal government, requiring better disclosure of the times and places of disconnections to identify systemic bias.

Above all, we believe that Americans need a collective mindset shift about energy access. That should start with a principle that everyone should have access to essential energy services and that utilities should only cut off service to customers as a last resort, especially during weather events that are hazardous to health.

The country can’t wait for deadly heat waves to show how important it is to protect American households.

This is an update to an article originally published on July 5, 2023.