Electricity inaccessibility across historically redlined and present-day disadvantaged areas in New York City

Abstract

Electricity is crucial in sustaining livelihoods from turning the lights on at night, keeping the refrigerator running to avoid food spoilage, and powering electricity-dependent durable medical equipment such as nebulizers. Thus, electricity inaccessibility may result in adverse outcomes. Like other environmental burdens, electricity inaccessibility may be socially patterned, with disproportionate occurrence in racially and economically marginalized communities. To evaluate the 2017-2019 distribution of electricity inaccessibility – defined as power outages and energy insecurity – across historical and present-day measures of community racial disadvantage in New York City (NYC). We measured power outages with NYC 311 outage call reports and the System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI). We calculated energy insecurity as monthly average energy use, leveraging data from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. These three electricity inaccessibility metrics were estimated within both historical Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) graded areas (A, ‘best’ through D, ‘redlined’) and present-day racial and economic Index of Concentrations at the Extremes (ICE) census tracts quartiles. Our study covered 396 HOLC areas and 2218 census tracts in NYC. Historically A-graded areas had fewer 311 outage calls and lower SAIFI. Additionally, the rate of 311 outage calls in the present-day most disadvantaged census tracts was nearly six times that of the most privileged tracts. Persistently disadvantaged areas (i.e., both poor HOLC grade and high ICE) had more power outages than consistently advantaged areas. However, the present-day most disadvantaged census tracts still had more power outages than persistently disadvantaged areas.