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.”
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.
Lawmakers included the summer disconnection provision in the new law after some disagreement over whether the protections should be tied to a time-based period or to high temperatures. Ultimately, they decided to connect the protection to the hottest days.
Kerwin Olson is the executive director of the Citizens Action Coalition, an Indiana consumer and environmental advocacy organization. He said that a time-based disconnection rule would have included more people, but the new protections are a good start.
“This was a very, very good thing for the state of Indiana. We and others have for years been working towards getting similar disconnection moratoriums for the high-heat months,” he said, “especially understanding with climate change, disruptions to weather patterns, increasing temperatures, and also understanding that there are more heat-related deaths and injuries in the summertime.”
In the past two decades, heat-related deaths in the U.S. have increased by about 53%, according to research from the Yale School of Public Health.
Indiana law already prohibited disconnecting electric and gas utilities from Dec. 1 through March 15 for residents who were approved for a heating assistance program through LIHEAP.
Jenny Terry, a senior attorney with Indiana Legal Services who works on housing issues, said that while the new hot day prohibition provides protections for low-income people, there is another drawback this first year.
“The time period to apply for the Energy Assistance Program has already closed, so unless somebody is already registered for that program, they’re not going to be able to get relief from this new law this year,” Terry said.
The deadline to apply for assistance was April 20. IHCDA said that applications will reopen in the fall.
But if people need help with utility bills, they can reach out to their utility companies, which may have financial assistance programs.
Konisky, the IU professor, said utility companies may also work with residential customers who are facing a looming disconnection.
“If customers reach out to their utility, they will make available to them some sort of payment plan or other kind of arrangement that will allow them to delay or stop a disconnection,” he said, “but often the onus is on the customer to do that reach-out.”
Contact WFYI data journalist Zak Cassel at zcassel@wfyi.org
