After hot weather, more people lose electricity service due to nonpayment

Enlarge (credit: chuchart duangdaw)

While it’s going to be difficult for anyone to avoid any negative effects of our changing climate, the effects are going to be disproportionately felt by those least able to afford them. And this week brings more evidence that we’re already at the point where the poor are suffering from the growth in heatwaves that have come with the ever-rising global temperatures.

The work comes from UCLA, where three researchers were given access to data from the utility Southern California Edison, which serves over 15 million customers in (you guessed it) Southern California. The data indicated that low-income customers were more likely to be disconnected by the utility a couple of months after hot weather—a timing in keeping with the utility’s policy of giving customers time to pay. While the effect was small, it went up with each hot day, meaning extended heat waves will cause more severe problems for the poor.

Losing power

For their new paper, the researchers focused on participants in a program called the California Alternate Rates for Energy, which cuts the rate that low-income customers pay for their electricity. Keeping the lights on can be a struggle for these customers; previous studies have documented that many end up choosing between energy and food, and national surveys suggest over 10 percent of US households get a disconnection notice each year.