Some Indiana electricity customers have new protections against utility companies disconnecting service on the hottest days of the year under a new law — but not everyone qualifies for them.
The law largely addresses billing programs and a new ratemaking process with state regulators but includes the provision among other changes to state utility law.
The rule prohibits privately and cooperatively owned electric utilities from shutting off service to a residential customer within 48 hours of the National Weather Service forecasting a heat index of at least 95 degrees Fahrenheit. But to qualify, they must also have applied and been approved for a federal energy assistance program administered by the state.
"They only are covering those who are able to successfully access the LIHEAP program, which means there are people at the same income level with the same energy assistance needs that are not going to be covered by the law," said David Konisky, a professor with the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington. He researches energy and environmental policy.
LIHEAP — or the Low-Income Home and Energy Assistance Program — is a federal program administered through the Indiana Housing & Community Development Authority.
“So that’s a pretty important feature — or bug, perhaps — of how the Indiana disconnections policies are designed,” he added. “They’re different from state to state. In other states that have more protective policies, they don’t have such restrictive criteria.”
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Konisky co-founded the Energy Justice Lab, which tracks utility disconnection data across the U.S. In 2024, investor-owned Indiana utilities issued 123,284 disconnections due to nonpayment, according to the lab’s data. AES Indiana stopped disconnecting customers in 2024 because of a billing problem, he said, so it had zero disconnections that year.
About 5.7 million households received heating assistance in the U.S. in 2022 under the program, according to the most recent report from the federal government, a figure that represents about 15% of all homes with incomes under federal guidelines that would qualify for the assistance.
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