The coldest months are looming and at Generation Power CT (GPCT), we are already seeing troubling signs of what winter will bring: Connecticut families running out of heating oil earlier, and the cost of filling their tanks stretching emergency assistance further than it can go.

During last fiscal year (July 2025-June 2026), 83% of GPCT clients seeking assistance with delivered fuel, electricity, or natural gas qualified for our maximum emergency energy assistance grant of up to $500.

In total, we accepted applications for just 36 days throughout the entire fiscal year, divided among four application cycles. Even with that limited window, we provided emergency energy assistance to 5,731 households. Unfortunately, another 860 households had to be denied before we could even review their applications because available funding had been exhausted.

This level of demand in just 36 days highlights the urgency of energy insecurity in Connecticut. This year, the warning signs are appearing even earlier, pointing to a greater crisis evolving for vulnerable households. GPCT cannot solve this alone. We urgently need support as we work together to ensure that no one is left in the cold.

Families Are Starting the Heating Season with Empty Tanks

GPCT recently completed the first of three planned emergency energy assistance applications for the 2026-2027 fiscal year. In that first cycle alone, we received more than 2,200 applications for assistance. Nearly 1,000 of those applications came from households seeking help with heating oil.

What concerns us most is not simply how many families are asking for help, but the critical need they are facing when they apply. Approximately 80% of this year’s oil applicants reported being out of fuel or nearly out of fuel. Last year, that figure was approximately 45%.

This means that even before Connecticut has reached the coldest part of the year, four out of every five households coming to GPCT for oil assistance are already facing an immediate heating emergency. And the rising cost of oil makes responding to those emergencies increasingly difficult.

GPCT’s maximum emergency energy assistance grant is $500 per household, per year. Recently, heating oil prices have reached a point where $500 may not cover the minimum 100-gallon delivery for some Connecticut suppliers. GPCT is proactively working with our vendors and partners to help ensure that families facing a heating crisis will be able to receive a delivery despite these minimums.

In Connecticut, Heating Oil is a Necessity for Hundreds of Thousands of Homes

According to the latest report from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA), heating oil costs are projected to be 50% higher than last winter. More than 41% of Connecticut homes rely on heating oil, making our state particularly dependent on delivered fuel to stay warm—and therefore vulnerable to skyrocketing prices.

For families already struggling to keep up with rent or mortgage payments, groceries, transportation, childcare, medications, and other necessities, a sudden fuel delivery costing hundreds of dollars can simply be beyond what is available in the household budget.

Going without heat isn’t just uncomfortable. It can be dangerous and life threatening.

When a home gets too cold, plumbing can freeze, and pipes can burst, creating significant damage and additional expenses for families already in financial distress.

Households may also turn to risky alternative sources of heat in an effort to keep themselves and their children warm. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention specifically warns against using gas ovens or ranges to heat a home because doing so can expose families to carbon monoxide, an odorless and colorless gas that can cause serious illness or death.

Portable heaters also present risks when used improperly. According to the National Fire Protection Association, space heaters account for one-third of home heating-equipment fires but were associated with nine out of ten deaths from home heating-equipment fires. Portable fuel-burning heaters can also create carbon monoxide hazards when used improperly in closed spaces.

No family should have to choose between being cold and taking those risks.

We Know More Families Will Need Us

At GPCT, the numbers from our first application cycle this year are telling us something important: The need isn’t coming. It’s already here.

We still have two planned application cycles ahead of us, in December and March—the months when Connecticut families will be facing some of the coldest temperatures of the year.

Last year showed us just how quickly available assistance can be exhausted. We had funding to accept applications for only 36 days, and hundreds of households were turned away because the resources simply weren’t there to help everyone who needed us.

This year, we are entering the heating season with significantly more of our oil clients already at or near empty. We cannot wait until the coldest days of winter to prepare for the families who will need help.

Help Us Be Ready

The best time to make sure a Connecticut family has heat this winter is before their tank is empty.

A gift to Generation Power CT today helps us prepare for the need we know is coming. It helps put resources in place before our December and March application cycles. And it gives us a better chance of saying yes when a family reaches out to us because their home is cold and they have nowhere else to turn.

When temperatures drop, heating isn’t a luxury. Every donation adds to what our community can do together.

Every Connecticut household deserves secure access to heat, power, and water.