This paper empirically assesses multidimensional energy poverty for low-income households in
South Africa using the four waves of the National Income Dynamic Survey (NIDS). The study
adopted the Nussbaumer et al. (2011) methodology, the multidimensional energy poverty index
(MEPI), to estimate energy poverty on 10 801 low-income households. The results indicated that
low-income households in rural areas are more energy deprived than those in the urban areas.
However, the MEPI score across the years in low-income urban and rural households depicts a
moderate state of energy poverty. The implication of moderate energy poverty could be that
the aim of electrifying poor households by the government and making modern energy
affordable (through the free basic electricity policy) is significant but has not yet achieved
considerable success. Further, low-income households in both rurality are mostly deprived in the
dimension of heating fuel. The study recommended that suitable measures to combat energy
poverty be rural-urban specific.