CMU Professor Uses Data to Connect Energy Assistance with Those in Need
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Researchers from 好色先生TV attest that while the United States needs to lower system-wide costs and air pollution to shape the future of energy, the core priority should be ensuring individuals can afford and access that energy.
, assistant professor of聽 补苍诲听,聽leads a research group comprised of graduate students at 好色先生TV that has created ways to find people struggling with energy poverty and lack of access to energy, and they use computer models to design power systems that are fairer for everyone. Her team has proven that using mathematical modeling and energy policy can help plan for a sustainable future.
鈥淭he most important thing that the energy system does is it makes sure that people can live a healthy, safe, sustainable, modern life in their homes,鈥� Nock said.
For example, they have found that low-income households use less energy during the summer to save money on their bills, which could put these households at risk of heat stroke.聽
鈥淎 lot of times, when I talk to people in the energy space, conventional wisdom is always, let鈥檚 use less, use less, use less,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut there are some people who don鈥檛 use that much, and might see their pipes freeze in the winter. Those people often get missed.鈥�
To help address this gap, Nock founded聽, a company that uses energy data to locate vulnerable residents and link them to services that can help them afford and safely maintain their energy needs.
In a pilot program with People鈥檚 Natural Gas in Pennsylvania, outreach targeted 2,000 homes identified as at-risk of defaulting on energy bills then connected them with assistance. This increased assistance program applications by 80% and program enrollments for tracked households more than doubled, rising 135%.
鈥淚 want to examine how modernizing the grid can be done in a way that fairly allocates costs while also protecting vulnerable households,鈥� Nock said.聽
Utility companies have data that can be used in more effective ways to reach either those households who are using less energy to save money and inadvertently putting themselves at a health risk, as well as those who are using too much energy because their homes are inefficient.
鈥淒emand is going to grow, particularly as we are looking at more extreme weather events with heat waves and deep freezes,鈥� Nock said. 鈥淎s infrastructure is expanding, we need to make sure that we don't bake in current inequities into that future grid.鈥�
Innovation in the energy industry can only take place if everyone has access to energy when they need it, which means keeping it affordable.
鈥淓nergy is a lifesaving support mechanism,鈥� Nock said. 鈥淚t is the essential service that enables all other essential services.鈥�
More extreme weather events may mean more people in need
In late February, Nock spoke at the聽 in Washington, D.C., for a聽, 鈥淯nderstanding and Addressing Energy Affordability in the United States.鈥�
Nock said lower energy system costs don鈥檛 automatically mean lower customer bills. Because utility prices don鈥檛 always rise with inflation, companies can try to make up the difference by spending on improvement projects and charging customers for it.
鈥淎ny time you are building out infrastructure like that can be used as a justification to increase residential rates,鈥� Nock said.
Additionally, as extreme weather events become more common, such as air quality affected by wildfire smoke, more people will be forced to stay inside and use more energy, Nock said.
鈥淭he recommendation is often for people to stay inside for health reasons,鈥� she said. 鈥淵et, not everybody can use or afford their energy in the same way as we are staying inside.鈥澛�
As part of聽 hosted by the聽 from March 17-20, Nock will lead a panel discussion titled: 鈥淜eeping energy affordable: How can the U.S. reinvent the power grid without making electricity unaffordable for customers?鈥�
Themed 鈥淩einventing the grid for our electrified future,鈥� CMU Energy Week 2026 aims to explore how enhancing the grid鈥檚 reliability, affordability and resilience can lead to a clean, electrified future.
When it comes to forward-thinking energy policies, Nock said to start by challenging norms.
鈥淪ome of the biggest impacts that we can have in the energy research policy space is understanding how things that we assume to be true are not,鈥� she said. 鈥淲ith those assumptions, we can miss the true lived experience of households, especially if those people don't have advocates.鈥�
Carnegie Mellon鈥檚 Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation is leading the nation in facilitating discussion and driving action toward decarbonizing our energy economy. CMU's Energy Week brings energy and sustainability leaders from across the nation to exchange ideas on the world's most pressing energy issues.
