PO L ICY Joe Hall, Bob Cattanach, and Brad Hammer D o r s e y & W h i t n e y L L P ’s E n e r g y, Cyber Security and Privacy Practice
So, who owns your energy-use data?
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he integration of renewable energy and environmental policy has meant the power industry has had to rethink core assumptions about fuel sources, costs, reliability, and centralized planning. It has also had to reconsider the traditional utility-customer relationship. As distributed generation has grown around the country, energy monitoring and smart metering has increased to better meet power demands. But there is a fine line between monitoring and privacy. One important conversation has far-reaching implications: the legal and regulatory treatment of customer energy usage data or CEUD. The ownership and treatment of CEUD touches legal issues
The traditional electric meter tells how much a house or company uses each month. But, whose data is that?
that include customer privacy rights and a business’s ability to protect potential trade-secret operations. Is it fair game that your neighbors, local businesses, or even OCTOBER 2015
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the government have access to data on how and when you use electricity or, in some case, even where it comes from, such as natural gas, fossil fuels, or wind power? In the absence of significant regulatory clarity in the near future, the current lack of guidance in this area may create significant and sometimes unforeseen risks for the industry. Utilities, regulators, and many consumers are strongly invested in discussions over what may become the next-generation utility model at the federal and state level. Understanding CEUD Recent advances in metering technology have allowed a detailed exchange of data between a utility and its customers. Through the use of smart meters, this data can serve as an effective tool for more efficient energy pricing and billing by helping utilities better regulate and measure electricity use over time. However, one concern is that the exchange of CEUD is not necessarily just between utilities and customers. A variety of stakeholders may seek this information for various business, political, and policy objectives such as: • Target marketing. Businesses selling products and services aimed at increasing home or building efficiency could benefit from customer power-usage data. • Regulatory enforcement. Local governments may need CEUD to support and enforce local ordinances that mandate energy use reduction in buildings within their borders. • Conservation compliance. State agencies may seek to verify compliance with conservation, energy efficiency, and emissions reduction efforts (most state agencies may already have access to such data through mandated reporting, but may seek more granular and precise information). • Efficiency mandates. Owners of apartments or large buildings could request tenant-specific power usage to monitor and encourage energy efficiency, or to ensure compliance with local ordinances. • Environmental watchdogs. Energy or environmental “watchdog” groups may want power-usage data to enforce conservation, efficiency, or emission reduction requirements on utilities, or customers, or both. Based on the steady trend over the last decade, the demand for CEUD is almost certain to increase. Privacy law is a relatively windpowerengineering.com
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10/7/15 2:31 PM