When households are unable to pay for their energy bills in full or on time, utility providers often shut off their service. By the end of 2024, utility shut-offs are projected to increase by 300,000 households, to 3.5 million total.¹ When a household is disconnected from its electric utility service, there are severe consequences, such as unsafely heating or cooling themselves or the inability to refrigerate food or sustain medication. Due to the severity of a utility disconnection on people’s health and well-being, many states limit when electric utility providers are allowed to shut off service due to unpaid bills. Although most states have cold-weather protections in place, only 41 states offer protections specific to cold weather and seven states do not have weather protections of any kind.² For the summer months, 33 states do not have shut-off protections, forcing more than a third of families to forgo other expenses and prioritize utility payments over other necessities.³ Policy solutions are necessary to keep families safe regardless of extreme climate conditions.

This article provides a snapshot of the current conditions of energy-insecure households, including households that face a significantly higher likelihood of being disconnected, a brief summary of disconnection protection policies across states, and policy solutions to keep vulnerable populations safe. 

Energy Insecurity & Shifts in Energy Prices

Currently, more than 30 million households in the United States are energy insecure, meaning that they are unable to adequately meet household energy needs.⁴ A severe instance of energy insecurity is when a utility disconnects a household from service, affecting the ability to maintain their temperature or ability to refrigerate food or medicine. High energy costs as a fraction of household income — called energy burden — are a major stressor on the finances of low-income households. Due to this burden, low-income individuals are the most likely to be in arrears on energy bills and therefore at risk of disconnection of service for nonpayment. A high bill or unexpected expense can make it difficult for households to pay their utility bill and if the bill remains unpaid, utility companies may disconnect the service and send them to collections, causing a financial spiral. 

A shift in energy prices can highly impact a low-income household’s ability to afford to pay their energy bills. This is due to various factors including natural gas costs, high temperatures, and reductions in federal funding for energy assistance programs. Research conducted by the National Energy Assistance Directors Association on energy hardships in the United States finds the following: 

• Federal funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) was reduced from $6.1 billion to $4.1 billion between FY24 and FY23, which reduced the number of households being served from 5.9 million to 4.9 million. 
• Due to a reduction in federal funding, utility arrearage has increased by 8.4% since the end of last year to $17.4 billion in debt. Nearly one out of every seven households are behind on their electric and gas bills. 
• Utility shut-offs are projected to increase by 300,000 households, to 3.5 Million, by the end of 2024.
• There was an increase in households that kept their home at unsafe temperatures from 19.8% in 2023 to 22% in 2024.⁵  
• As we head into the winter months, prices for home heating on average are estimated to increase by about 8.7% due to expected colder winter weather in the Northeast and Midwest states.⁶

Disparities of Utility Disconnections

There is a lack of data from utility providers on disconnections due to limited national reporting requirements for utility companies to disclose this information. Many studies rely on surveys as the primary method of research. Various studies find that vulnerable demographic groups face a significantly higher likelihood of being disconnected. These include: 

• Lower-income Households: Studies show that lower-income households spend a bigger share of their income on energy costs (e.g., electricity, natural gas, and other home heating fuels) than higher-income households.⁷ 
• Black and Latine Households: Studies show that significant racial disparities in disconnections persist even after controlling for income, energy burden, and poor housing conditions.⁸ One particular study finds that “Black and Hispanic households are associated with larger overall numbers of disconnections and higher disconnection rates across four California utilities”.⁹ Proving strong evidence that race and ethnicity contribute to higher disconnections.
• Households with children under the age of 5: A study conducted in California found a 10% increase in the share of a zip code that has children under the age of 5 years old is associated with roughly 181 additional disconnections per year, and a 2.7% increase in disconnection risk for each additional 1% of the population with young children.¹⁰
• Renters: Roughly 44 million renter households across the country were behind on their energy bills in 2021, among those renters almost half were also behind on rent.¹¹
• Other vulnerable households include individuals living with health conditions and the elderly. 

Protections for Utility Disconnections

There are no federal policies that protect customers from disconnections. Utilities are generally regulated at the state level, therefore protection policies vary for customers. Protections also vary by utility type; state regulation largely applies only to investor-owned utilities (IOUs), whereas rural electric cooperatives and municipal utilities have their own protection policies.¹² The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) Clearinghouse, the hub for information on how LIHEAP operates, offers a comprehensive summary of disconnection policies and resources by state. Their national summary shows that 40 states and the District of Columbia have cold weather disconnection protection policies, 21 States and the District of Columbia have hot weather disconnection protection policies, two States have policies to prevent disconnections during extreme weather events, and 38 States and the District of Columbia have policies to prevent disconnections for vulnerable populations.¹³

Policy Solutions

Short- and long-term policy solutions are necessary to keep families safe despite extreme climate conditions. These include suspension and elimination of shut-offs, an increase in funding in federal assistance programs, utility data transparency, and energy efficiency upgrades for rental properties. 

• Suspension of Shut-offs: All utilities must suspend shut-offs to protect low-income families. The establishment of a “universal right to uninterrupted energy service would ensure that provisions are in place to prevent utility disconnection due to non-payment and arrearages”.¹⁴
• Increase federal funding for energy assistance programs: Programs like the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) should increase their funding to help provide assistance to families most in need. 
• Utility Data Transparency law: Access to data is critical knowledge for advocates to remedy inequitable and discriminatory policies. The Energy Democracy Project has explored this in its Model Statue: Utility Shutoff and Debt Transparency, which provides language and resources for drafting legislation.
• Energy Efficiency Upgrades: There is a need for increased funding for energy efficiency programs targeting rental properties that are home to energy-insecure households.

Climate and energy justice advocates are working to transform the energy sector with the advancement of energy democracy policies such as municipalization and other means of localizing control of the electricity system, often with a focus on distributed solutions that foster community energy resilience and economic benefit. To learn more about this movement visit our previous article, Utility Justice: Why it Matters and Resources for Advocates as well as further resources for utility justice here.

1. National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEDA), Energy Hardship Project. ↩︎
2. Energy Justice Lab, Electric Utility Disconnections: Legal Protections & Policy Recommendations, June 2023. ↩︎
3.  Ibid. ↩︎
4. Health Affairs, Energy Insecurity And Health: America’s Hidden Hardship, June 29, 2023 ↩︎
5. Federal funding for energy assistance programs have reduced, Energy Hardships Report. August 2024. ↩︎
6. National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEDA), Press Release: Utility Bills This Winter Will Cost More Than Christmas, December 18, 2024. ↩︎
7. Drehobl, Ariel, and Roxana Ayala. “Energy Burden Research.” ACEEE, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. ↩︎
8. University of Pennsylvania, Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, A Data-Driven Look at Utility Disconnections, November 24, 2024. ↩︎
9.  Ibid. ↩︎
10. Nature Communications, Assessing demographic vulnerability and weather impacts on utility disconnections in California. November 5, 2024. ↩︎
11. ACEEE, One-Third of Tenants Behind on Utility Bills, Highlighting Need for Energy Upgrades, August 17, 2022 ↩︎
12. The Electric Journal, Electric utility disconnection policy and vulnerable populations. 2020. ↩︎
13. LIHEAP Clearing House, Disconnection Policies. Note: These policies may not apply to all utilities in the states. ↩︎
14. NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program, Lights Out in the Cold; Reforming Utility Shut-Off Policies as if Human Rights Matter. March 2017. ↩︎