BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Hundreds of Lehigh Valley households already have needed emergency heating assistance this winter, state data shows.
The need comes even as utility shutoff protections remain in place and the state's main energy assistance program got off to a late start.
LIHEAP, or the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, is a federally funded program administered by states to help income-eligible households pay home heating bills and avoid loss of heat during the winter.
In Pennsylvania, the program offers two types of assistance: cash grants that help offset seasonal heating costs and crisis grants for households facing an immediate heating emergency, such as running out of fuel or having service shut off.
Eligibility is based primarily on household income, and benefits are paid directly to utility companies or fuel vendors on a household's behalf.
The early data
From Dec. 3, 2025, to Jan. 31, 2026, 676 households in Lehigh County and 681 households in Northampton County received LIHEAP crisis grants, according to data from the state Department of Human Services.
Those grants are reserved for households facing an imminent loss of heat, including those who are out of fuel or have less than two weeks' supply of deliverable fuels such as oil or propane.
During the same period, 3,848 Lehigh County households and 2,817 Northampton County households received standard LIHEAP cash assistance to help pay heating bills, the data shows.
Statewide, 38,498 households received crisis aid and 181,648 households received LIHEAP cash benefits during the reporting period.
The figures come amid Pennsylvania’s annual winter utility shutoff moratorium, which runs from Dec. 1 through March 31 and prevents regulated electric and natural gas utilities from shutting off service for income-eligible customers earning up to 250% of the federal poverty level.
Maximum annual income is set at $23,940 for a single person and increases by about $8,520 for each additional person, reaching approximately $49,500 for a four-person household.
The presence of the moratorium underscores an important distinction in the crisis data.
Not all heating emergencies involve regulated utilities. Households that rely on deliverable fuels such as heating oil, propane, coal or wood are not protected by the shutoff ban and still may face immediate heat loss if they run out of fuel.
The early demand for emergency assistance also coincides with a stretch of bitterly cold winter weather in the region.
As of Monday, Feb. 9, the average monthly temperature has been 17.1 degrees, a departure from normal of 13.3 degrees.
It follows a frigid January that averaged 24.6 degrees, or 5.5 degrees below normal, and also brought 20.8 inches of snow to the Lehigh Valley.
Prolonged cold increases household energy use and accelerates fuel consumption, particularly for homes that rely on oil or propane, driving up heating costs and pushing already strained households closer to crisis.
Early concentration of crisis cases
While DHS cautions there is no direct year-over-year comparison available, because the 2025-26 LIHEAP season opened about a month late due to a federal government shutdown, the early crisis numbers already represent a notable share of last winter’s total.
Last season, 2,115 households in Lehigh County and 1,690 households in Northampton County received LIHEAP crisis assistance over the entire winter.
By the end of January this year, Lehigh County already had reached about a third of its prior-season crisis total, while Northampton County had reached about 40%.
DHS said it does not track whether current crisis recipients also received emergency aid last year, nor does it collect data on the specific financial or household circumstances that lead applicants to seek crisis assistance beyond confirming they meet LIHEAP eligibility criteria.
As a result, the data cannot show whether households are facing new hardships, repeat emergencies or specific cost pressures such as higher fuel prices or rising housing costs.
Still, the concentration of crisis cases early in the winter suggests many households entered the season already struggling to maintain adequate heat.
Cash assistance lagging for now
Cash assistance enrollments are lower than last year’s final totals, but advocates and state officials previously said that's expected, given the delayed opening of the program and the fact that applications remain open through April.
During the 2024–25 season, 6,247 Lehigh County households and 4,172 Northampton County households received LIHEAP cash assistance. Statewide totals reached nearly 293,000 households.
Because LIHEAP enrollment typically continues well into spring, DHS has emphasized that current figures represent a partial snapshot, not the full scope of winter need.
Looking ahead
With weeks of winter still ahead and the potential for additional extreme cold, the pace of crisis enrollments will be closely watched by local agencies that administer the program.
LIHEAP applications remain open through April 10, and households may apply for both cash and crisis assistance if they meet income guidelines.
The federal program recently received $4.05 billion as part of an appropriations package that will fund most government agencies through September.
President Donald Trump signed the bill into law last week, ending a brief government shutdown.
Though most LIHEAP funding directly subsidizes residential heating and cooling costs, some also is geared toward home weatherization and energy-efficiency initiatives that can help mitigate energy load peaks during extreme cold or heat.
PJM, the regional transmission organization that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia — including Pennsylvania — described the recent weather as the “strongest sustained cold period that the PJM system has experienced since the 1990s."
The weather brought multiple days of record or near-record electricity demand, and significant stress across both the electric and natural gas systems, the organization said on its website.
It noted that school, government and office closings drove down electricity demand, and while PJM did not hit any record peaks, it still experienced hourly winter peak loads of 130 GW and above for eight consecutive days (from Jan. 26–Feb. 2, a first for the winter season).
That included two of the Top 10 hourly winter peaks in PJM history (Nos. 6 and 8), according to preliminary figures.
PJM requested, was granted and made use of a temporary order from the Department of Energy to let generators run in excess of environmental permit levels in case of emergency.
The DOE issued another emergency order to let PJM direct data centers and other large load customers onto backup generation if needed in an emergency to avoid electrical outages to other customers.
While PJM said it did not need to implement the order, it will continue to refine the procedure in case it is needed and approved for future events.
The highest usage (preliminary peak) over the weekend was 132,984 MW from 7-8 p.m. Feb. 7, the company said on social media early Monday.
Around that timeframe, the wind chill in the Allentown area was around -19, according to preliminary data from the National Weather Service.
