# Energy Policy Seminar #### calendar\_today Date and Time **April 11, 2022** 12:00PM - 01:00PM EDT #### pin\_drop Location **Zoom** [ Register arrow\_circle\_right ](https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7W9y-mM1Twqt3FoLK25toA) **Destenie Nock**, Assistant Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, will present "Energy Limiting Behavior: A Hidden Form of Energy Policy." **Destenie Nock**, Assistant Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, will present "Energy Limiting Behavior: A Hidden Form of Energy Policy." Income-based energy poverty metrics miss people's behavior patterns, particularly those who reduce their energy consumption to limit financial stress. Using a residential electricity consumption dataset, we determine the outdoor temperature at which households start using home cooling systems. Using this inflection temperature, we calculate the relative energy poverty within a region, which we define as the energy equity gap. In our study region, we find that the energy equity gap between low and high-income groups ranges from 4.7°F to 7.5°F. In 2015-2016, within our population of 4,577 households, we found 86 energy-poor and 214 energy-insecure, meaning they are at risk of heat-related illness and death. In contrast traditional income-based energy poverty metric identified just 141 households as energy insecure. Only three households were defined as energy-poor or energy-insecure by both our temperature-based measure and the traditional income-based measure. This minimal overlap shows the value of considering consumer behavior when identifying energy poverty and energy insecurity. Dr. Destenie Nock is a leader in energy justice and equitable energy transitions. In her role as an Assistant Professor in Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) and Engineering and Public Policy (EPP), she leads a team of researchers who create optimization and decision analysis tools which evaluate the sustainability, equity, and reliability of power systems in the United States and Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Nock holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, and an Offshore Wind Energy IGERT Fellow. She earned a MSc in Leadership for Sustainable Development at Queen's University of Belfast, and two BS degrees in Electrical Engineering and Applied Math at North Carolina A&T State University. She is the creator of the [Black Electricity Blog](https://destenienock5.wixsite.com/destenienock/blog-posts) site which posts articles about graduate and undergraduate advice, and research updates in energy and sustainability. HKS Professor Henry Lee will moderate the Q&A. Visit [the event page](https://www.belfercenter.org/event/energy-policy-seminar-destenie-nock-energy-limiting-behavior-hidden-form-energy-poverty) for more information. [Register](https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7W9y-mM1Twqt3FoLK25toA) in advance. Contact: See also:- [ Business, Law & Policy ](/research-areas/business-law-and-policy) - [ Harvard Kennedy School ](/school/harvard-kennedy-school) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#) Save: [ Add to calendar calendar\_today ](https://www.environment.harvard.edu/node/1431889/event-feed.ics) Copy link link