Centralized injustices: understanding energy resilience in times of disruption in low-income settlements in Peru

Abstract

What happens once people have electricity has received far less analytical and policy attention than the provision of the infrastructure itself. For low-income settlements that have gained a connection to the grid, energy access challenges can still prevail, keeping many inhabitants in energy poverty. This paper analyses energy practices in three low-income neighbourhoods in Lima, Peru, with particular attention to inhabitants’ responses in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, it seeks to draw lessons for energy policy and planning to enhance energy resilience in the transition towards more just and sustainable futures. Building on energy resilience scholarship and drawing links with justice debates, this paper discusses three community coping strategies: (1) fuel stacking; (2) collective practices and the shared economy; and (3) material and spatial changes. It analyses how these strategies relate to dominant policy directions, as well as their implications for energy resilience and justice more broadly.