Upgrades to aging utility equipment and efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have combined to drive up electricity costs across the country, with the national average increasing from one year to the next.

As a New York Times business reporter, I have been looking into the impact of the rising costs of electricity on consumer bills. With my colleague Madeleine Ngo, I recently examined how higher rates have strained the budgets of low-income consumers — many of whom cannot afford clean energy technologies like solar panels and electric vehicles.