Energy Poverty clustering by using power-cut job order data of the Electricity Distribution Companies

Abstract

The identification of the population suffering from energy poverty is an essential requirement for producing systematic and sustainable solutions. A large amount of data, such as identity information, wage information, health information, asset information (title deed, rental income), expenditure information, debt information, credit information, bank records, etc. is used in the literature and country applications for this determination. The primary indicator of energy poverty is the arrears on utility bills. The arrears resulting from the affordability problem of the energy consumed trigger a power cut-off job order in the utility company. This research examines the literature and country social assistance implementation data to see how an energy poverty level can be identified using details on arrears and power-cut job orders. On this subject, power-cut job orders were constituted, because of arrears on utility bills, were subjected to statistical analysis, and the compatibility of arrear trend data with the socio-economic development index was investigated. Cities with a less indexes have more utility bill arrears in terms of both number and volume, according to correlation-test data. Non-technical losses are linked to less defined characteristics (loss & theft). The relationship between the growth index and the number of customers is another intriguing finding. Separating the consumption levels of arrears, it is found that 63% of total non-payment is depending on 18% of consumers. Trend analysis confirmed that every energy consumption level has the absolute and fluctuated component inside. The number of people inside the absolute poverty cluster is coherent with national and international approaches almost in the same number. The findings revealed that arrears on utility bills can be used specifically to assess the population identified with energy dependency rather than relying on evidence from a variety of sources.