McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston, McCormack Hall, Boston, MA, USA.
Paul H. O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.
Nat Commun. 2024 Nov 5;15(1):9548. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-53913-y.
When a household is disconnected from their electric utility service the consequences can be severe, including accumulation of debt, the inability to maintain comfortable temperatures, and in the most extreme cases, homelessness or mortality. While the survey-based literature on utility disconnections has yielded important findings about which households are most likely to experience a utility shutoff, only a few existing studies have used data from utility companies themselves. In this analysis, we utilize zip-code level data from four of California's largest utility providers to measure sociodemographic disparities in disconnections, in addition to the impact of adverse weather. We find that zip codes with a higher share of vulnerable households, especially Black and Hispanic households and households with young children, face a higher number and rate of utility disconnections, even after controlling for an extensive set of factors that are commonly thought to explain higher rates of energy insecurity, including income, housing characteristics, and energy costs. Our analysis also suggests that sociodemographic and weather disparities in disconnections differ between utility types. We conclude by discussing the implications of the findings for research and policy, including the impact of regulation, utility provider practices, and more extreme weather driven by climate change.
当家庭与电力供应商的服务断开连接时，后果可能很严重，包括债务积累、无法维持舒适的温度，在最极端的情况下，还会导致无家可归或死亡。虽然基于调查的关于公用事业中断的文献已经得出了关于哪些家庭最有可能经历公用事业关闭的重要发现，但只有少数现有研究使用了公用事业公司自己的数据。在这项分析中，我们利用了加利福尼亚州四个最大的公用事业公司的邮政编码级别数据，除了不利天气的影响外，还衡量了在断接方面的社会人口差异。我们发现，即使在控制了通常被认为可以解释更高能源不安全率的一整套因素后，包括收入、住房特征和能源成本，脆弱家庭（尤其是黑人和西班牙裔家庭以及有小孩的家庭）比例较高的邮政编码面临着更高数量和更高比例的断接。我们的分析还表明，在不同类型的公用事业中，在断接方面存在社会人口和天气差异。最后，我们讨论了这些发现对研究和政策的影响，包括监管、公用事业提供商的做法以及气候变化驱动的更极端天气的影响。
