Home efficiency programs are falling short for nearly half of Memphians, data shows

Memphis Light, Gas and Water employees working to repair power lines. (Photo: MLGW)

Nearly half of Memphis families face high energy burdens, spending roughly 60 cents of every $10 they earn to keep lights on and climate control running, according to a study released in late June .

At the same time, advocates warn as heat waves become more prolonged and common across the south, current home efficiency boosting programs for low-income households aren’t enough, barely putting a dent in the number of households that could benefit from better insulated, more efficient homes.

Low household income, inefficient housing and outdated appliances can cause high energy burdens for familes, where a larger percentage of the money they make is used on bills to cool or heat up their homes.

There’s a huge gap between the support that is available to help low-income customers and customers experiencing high energy burden to achieve lower energy bills, and there is just a huge need for more access to weatherization and energy efficiency programs for low-income customers.

– Amanda Garcia, Southern Environmental Law Center

A total of 2,062 Shelby County homes have been upgraded since 2018 through low-income energy efficiency support programs offered by Memphis Light, Gas and Water  (MLGW) and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), according to data obtained from each agency. That’s equivalent to 7% of the roughly 30,000 Shelby County households paying more than a fifth of their income toward energy bills.

“There’s a huge gap between the support that is available to help low-income customers and customers experiencing high energy burden to achieve lower energy bills, and there is just a huge need for more access to weatherization and energy efficiency programs for low-income customers,” Amanda Garcia, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said. “We’re not just talking about saving money on bills, we’re also talking about making people’s homes more livable.”

The Atlanta-based nonprofit energy research firm Greenlink Analytics compiled the report, which was commissioned by the Southern Environmental Law Center , a nonpartisan, nonprofit environmental advocacy organization based in Virginia.

The report found in Shelby County, 135,000 households are paying at least 6% of their income toward energy bills, with 103,000 of those households qualifying as low income. The reports benchmarks energy cost burdens above 6% of a as households monthly income as high.

The data shows low-income and minority communities in Memphis tend to face heavier burdens. Households in South Memphis, a predominantly Black community, pay around 7% of their income toward energy bills compared to Memphis’ overall 5.6% burden.

Rising utility costs could deepen burdens

MLGW draws most of its power from TVA, which provides electricity to 153 local power companies serving about 10 million people across Tennessee and bordering Southeastern states. MLGW is TVA’s largest customer, representing about 11% of the authority’s total power load.

TVA has faced recent scrutiny over its plans to expand its natural gas power facilities while its investment in renewable power sources lags compared to other utilities across the United States. The utility aims to replace its coal fleet with gas power generation by 2035, and aims to reach 10 gigawatts of solar power by the same year (other utilities serving multiple states have already met and exceeded this goal).

While the energy burden report acknowledges MLGW’s residential gas and electric rates are relatively low, low rates “do not guarantee low energy burdens.”

Tennessee Valley Authority faces a push to get greener and more transparent

Electricity use typically peaks in August and during warmer months, and gas use is highest in winter. The average residential MLGW customer paid $122.71 per month for electricity and $46.94 per month for gas in 2021, according to Energy Information Administration data.

“In general, although MLGW and TVA have some of the lowest electricity rates in the nation (lower than 75% of the country), we agree that energy burden is an important issue that many people face, particularly in Memphis,” TVA spokesperson Scott Brooks said in an emailed statement.

Brooks cited TVA’s HomeUplift program — which has spent $8.7 million to serve 964 Memphis homes since 2018 — as an example of the utility’s investments toward energy-efficient housing and lower bills. TVA also offers rebates for energy efficiency upgrades and tips to save energy on energyright.com .

Garcia said while that program and others have helped some families, it’s “clearly not making a dent.”

Financial burdens and living conditions stand to worsen thanks to the increasing number of severe weather events, she said.

“We’re in a situation where they should be interested in reducing demand on the system. We’ve seen like in Winter Storm Elliott and … over the past few weeks with all the heat, that there are times of the year when TVA’s system is under a lot of strain,” Garcia said.

“Energy efficiency is a way to reduce that overall demand on the system. Low-income energy efficiency is an investment, and sometimes it can take more effort to improve the efficiency of an older home, but it is absolutely an investment that we can and should be making to ensure that people have livable homes in severe weather.”

The estimated cost of cooling during summer months has doubled for households across the nation in the last decade — from $476 in the summer of 2014 to an estimated $719 this summer — according to a June report from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association and the Center for Energy Poverty and Climate.

Summer cooling costs rose from $695 per household in 2023 to an estimated $774 in Tennessee this year, a 10% increase, the NEADA report states.

Memphis has tried to make some homes more efficient

MLGW offers energy efficiency repair grants to low-income homeowners through its “ Share the Pennies ” program. Since 2018, the program completed a total $8.16 million of work on 1,098 homes (about $7,429 per home), according to data shared at the utility’s July 17 Board of Commissioners meeting.

To be eligible for the “Share the Pennies” program, a person must own and live in their home and meet income restrictions. They must also be paid up to date for the previous year’s city and county property taxes on the home and must have an MLGW utility account for the home in their name, with no outstanding bills or charges due to utility theft within the last seven years.

MLGW does not disconnect residential services for nonpayment during “periods of life-threatening temperature extremes unless there is a potentially hazardous condition associated with the service,” their website notes.

Garcia said the utilities have a “big opportunity to invest in low-income energy efficiency,” particularly in South Memphis, which has served as the home of a TVA coal plant and a gas-powered plant and is being eyed as a location for another gas-powered facility.

“TVA and MLGW (should) invest in a clean energy portfolio that includes energy efficiency, solar, battery storage, instead of burdening South Memphis with more new gas plants,” she said.

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