International Energy Sessions Reveal
Global Low-income Problems, Solutions

The 16^th National Low Income Energy Consortium Annual Conference, held last month in Cincinnati, devoted an entire conference track to low-income energy programs in other countries. Representatives from utilities and social organizations on five continents attended and presented at workshops, which were well attended and enthusiastically received, according to NLIEC chair Ron Elwood.

It was apparent from the international presentations that all countries represented have poor people who are unable to afford their energy bills. Furthermore, some countries are not completely electrified and millions of poor households do not have electricity. As in the U.S., many countries around the globe have implemented some form of utility competition.

Following is a snapshot of low-income program details and energy issues in other countries that presented:

Britain
Great Britain uses the term "fuel poverty" to refer to households who spend more than 10 percent of their income on energy. Speaker Sara Threlfall of London Electricity estimated that about 4.3 million households are fuel poor, including 6 percent of the population of London

About 40,000 deaths each winter are fuel-related, in most of these cases there are multiple factors of which no electricity is one of them she said. Sources of help for the low-income in need include, HelpCo, a charity that acts as a supplier, a government weatherization initiative called Warm Zones, also supported by London Electricity; and Fuel Direct, part of a government welfare program, through which eligible households get a fuel assistance benefit. Like several other utilities represented at the conference, both here and abroad, British utilities use pre-payment meters for payment- troubled households (see related article); some also allow payments by debit card, in which case customers get a discount.

The British electric system has been deregulated and the primary issue regarding low-income customers wishing to switch suppliers is the debt they have incurred. Currently, the prices for an incumbent utility are set at a level that will enable a competitor to come in at a lower price.

France
Bruno Vollaire, representing Electricité de France (EDF), said 10 percent of the country’s population lives in poverty, with over 1 million receiving 'insertion' payments equivalent to $400 per month for one person.

Under the country’s deregulation laws, customers have a right to utility service and there is a ‘social tariff" that functions like a systems benefits charge. EDF has a goal of no disconnections and uses the social tariff, service limiters, and prepayment meters to deal with payment-troubled customers.

Service limiters control customers’ consumption through a microswitch that disconnects a household’s power if usage is greater than 3000 watts; and reconnects it when usage falls below 3000 watts.

EDF has also instituted a new rate affordability program in which benefit levels are determined by housing type, location and elevation; season lived in, number in household, year of construction, type and placement of insulation, type of heating system, type of appliances, and whether the dwelling has a programmable thermostat. It has used pre-pay meters in the past, and is planning a new pre-payment program aimed at 500,000 to 1 million households, to be implemented by 2003.

South America (Argentina and Brazil)
Millions of low-income in these countries do not have electricity, let alone adequate housing. Many live in isolated rural areas or in city slum neighborhoods, which are "huge sites of misery" built illegally on hillsides with no safety conditions, according to Alain Pages of EDF, who presented a paper titled "Low Income Customer Electrification Programmes in Argentina and Brazil."

For example, Rio de Janeiro has 728 slums and 594 communities without electrification. However, many people illegally tap into overhead distribution lines, creating a danger to themselves as well as to the utility workers who try to disconnect them.

A pilot metering project that was undertaken to upgrade the electric system in two slum areas of Rio is considered a successful, although expensive, model that may be implemented in other areas. The metering technology allows detection of theft and shut-off of targeted households from the central office.

Additionally, the governments of these countries and a consortium of private companies are engaged in projects to electrify off-grid households with solar systems.

South Africa
Prior to 1998, 90 percent of blacks in South Africa were not connected to the grid, while all whites were connected, said Mac Mdingi, of PN Energy Services, South Africa.

Beginning with black representation at the end of apartheid, a project to electrify urban areas brought 2 million black households onto the grid by 1998. The electrification was done as a partnership with EDF, a private South African utility and the South African government.