Residential Electricity Disconnections

The Energy Information Administration's Residential Utility Disconnections Report counts each time a utility shut off a residential customer's electricity or natural gas because a bill went unpaid. This page follows electricity: 13.4 million disconnections in 2024. EIA counted natural gas separately, 1.7 million disconnections in 2024, shown beside the electricity count below. EIA says the two should not be added together, because a customer with both services who is cut off for both is counted once in each.

These are events, not households. An account can be disconnected more than once in a year, and EIA did not collect how many distinct accounts were cut off. A customer is a utility meter at a home or building, so one master meter can serve many households. EIA also did not collect how long service stayed off: a disconnection can be a brief interruption or permanent. Move-outs, safety and storm shut-offs, and prepaid accounts that run out of credit are not in the count.

The numbers come from Form EIA-112, which the Office of Management and Budget approved on October 15, 2024. EIA collected the 2024 figures from utilities between February and December 2025 and published them on April 14, 2026. It was a mandatory census covering all natural gas customers and 98% of electricity residential customers. Where utilities did not report, EIA filled the gap with a statistical model; 8.47% of electricity and 11.36% of natural gas disconnections are imputed.

There is no earlier year to compare with: 2024 is the first year EIA collected these counts, and estimates made before it by other groups used different data and methods. The report also gives monthly counts and disconnection rates by state. Those counts are not seasonally adjusted, and EIA notes that state limits on winter shutoffs show up as lower winter rates in many states.