This chapter focuses on changing forms of infrastrucutral provision in the energy sector and their implications for a particular group of consumers, namely low-income or "economically vulnerable" consumers. Drawing on developments in Scandinavia, the UK and parts of the USA, the chapter critically discusses managerial practices and consumers responses that have emerged from recent reform policies in electricity. What are the implications of changing utility practices for different groups of consumers? Which consumers are successfully availing themselves of new service options and which consumers are marginalized or neglected? To what extent can tendencies towards a polarizing of infrastructural consumption, an ´energy divide`, be discerned in various places? What are the links between sustainable consumption and social equity in technical infrastructures?
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