Help With Your Electric Bill in Tennessee: LIHEAP - Regular

THDA's page still shows the last season: applications accepted online from November 1, 2025 at 8:00 a.m. CST for the 2025-2026 program. No 2026-2027 opening date is published as of 10 Sep 2026. Assistance is one-time and lasts only as long as funding does. Crisis Assistance applications must be accepted year-round, and agencies must budget crisis funds so crisis help is still available through March 15 of each program year.

Dates move every year and most states stop taking applications when the money runs out, not on the closing date. Checked Sep 10, 2026 — confirm before you count on it.

Crisis Assistance, processed year-round. You need a shut-off notice, disconnected utilities, an eviction notice (renters responsible for overages) or a no-delivery notice for home fuel, plus another qualifying circumstance. Deadlines are binding on the agency: help and notice within 48 hours of applying, or within 18 hours if it is life-threatening (service already disconnected or fuel gone). The agency notifies the utility to hold off disconnection until payment arrives. Every agency must spend at least 10% of its direct assistance on crisis. If crisis money is gone you must still be allowed to apply for Regular assistance. Apply through your local LIHEAP agency; THDA general information 800-228-THDA (800-228-8432).

Online through the THDA SmartSimple portal linked from https://thda.org/help-for-homeowners/low-income-home-energy-assistance-program-liheap/, or through your local LIHEAP agency (19 agencies cover the 95 counties). Payment goes to the utility, not to you.

Household income at or below 60% of the Tennessee state median income. THDA publishes the dollar table as a separate income-guidelines chart on thda.org (the PDF was not readable in this session, so no figures are quoted here).

$174 to $750, set by the household's energy burden. Benefit levels are uniform statewide and set by THDA.

Photo ID, Social Security numbers, proof of all household income, recent utility bill, and the shut-off or disconnection notice for Crisis. Extra THDA forms may apply: LI-03 zero income, LI-05 landlord agreement, LI-06 self-employment, LI-11 verification of disability.

No statewide winter moratorium and no temperature rule. The one protection listed for Tennessee by the federal LIHEAP Clearinghouse is a 30-day delay when a physician, public health official or social service official certifies that a household member's health would be harmed by losing service. Most Tennessee electric service comes from municipal utilities and co-ops the TPUC does not regulate, so rules vary by utility.

This comes from the Tennessee utility commission, not from the energy assistance programme — they are different offices and only one of them publishes it.

Regular applications get a decision or waitlist within 30 business days and payment within 90 days of approval - too slow for an imminent shut-off, which is what Crisis (18/48 hours) is for. Ask for Crisis explicitly.

In most states the same office runs SNAP food benefits, and receiving one often makes the other automatic or faster. SNAP in Tennessee →