Utility & Utility Justice

Keyword/Term:

Utility & Utility Justice

Definition:

An electric utility is a publicly regulated entity that engages in the distribution and delivery of electric energy for the public, as well as electricity generation in some states. Utilities generally operate as regulated monopolies with exclusive access to customers in specific geographic areas.

Utility justice is a grassroots movement of communities demanding justice from utility companies who are profiting off energy at the expense of climate-impacted communities.¹

Context:

Electric utilities can vary in structure but their three components can be understood as 1) generating electricity or procuring electricity from independent power producers,; utilizing fossil fuels, nuclear energy, hydropower, or renewable energy to produce the electricity;, 2) delivering electric power via transmission lines and distribution systems that make up the grid; and 3) selling that power to residential, commercial, and government customers. In the U.S. utilities are often classified into three ownership types: investor-owned utilities (IOUs), publicly owned utilities (POUs), and cooperative utilities. In the United States, around 3,000 electric utility companies are serving more than 140 million customers.² As of 2017, investor-owned utilities served 72% of the U.S. electricity customers.³

Electric utilities are a crucial aspect of people’s lives and have become very powerful industries with many challenges including rising costs due to load growth and climate impacts as well as inertia or backsliding on the need to transition off of fossil fuels. This has driven communities to seek reforms and structural change through regulatory and legislative action, often through a lens of reclaiming power for the benefit of communities. 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. From this movement, there have been numerous campaigns, coalitions, playbooks, reports, etc, for the advancement of utility justice by pushing for a restructuring of our energy system that is decentralized, democratized and that meets the needs of frontline communities.