This article will address energy poverty from the economic inability to cook with modern cooking fuels in urban slums in Brazil. Significant variations in Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) prices and limited household incomes have determined the choice of cooking fuels. The price of LPG has a prominent relevance in the budget of Brazilian households with lowes income, leading to substitute modern fuels by less efficient fuels. The data from the National Continuous Household Sample Survey indicate that LPG, a modern energy source, is being replaced by traditional fuels as fuelwood and coal, resulting from a fuel price policy aligned with the international market in one moment of high oil prices. Despite policies for access to energy and social programs that seek to deal with the problem of capacity to pay, the problem of the deprivation of modern energy services is not yet complete. In addition to economic factors and pricing policies, there are other dimensions that interact and influence energy poverty. This is called the Hidden Dimensions of Energy Poverty. Three dimensions are identified: (i) political-institutional, (ii) criminal and (iii) localization. Particularly in urban slums as Rio de Janeiro, these dimensions interact and imply in situations of energy poverty. In the absence of the government, parallel groups such as traffic and militias take advantage to control the market and the price of LPG (13 kg), which is sold at higher prices than in the formal market. The irregular sale of LPG is frequently in areas of low-income population, which leads to its replacement by traditional fuels. The article will study the hidden dimensions of energy poverty in the metropolitan regions of Brazil, evidenced in the affordability to LPG.
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