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NewsSmart meters: California PUC issues sweeping data access orders
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Jul 28, 2011
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Quick Take: California's big three investor-owned utilities -- Pacific Gas & Electric, San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison – got marching orders Thursday on providing consumers access to smart meter data. Can you say micro manage? In its order, the California PUC instructs them on everything from what to show and how to show it to where to show it. And perhaps the most far-reaching of the decisions in the 170-page PUC order: Utilities must also pass the data through to third –party companies if the consumer requests. – Jesse Berst
It's titled "A Decision Adopting Rules to Protect the Privacy and Security of the Electricity Usage Data of the Customers of Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric Company." What this most comprehensive approach to data access in the nation does, in a nutshell, is require the three utilities to:
· Provide customers with detailed energy usage, bill-to-date, month-end bill forecast, and projected month-end energy price on their websites – updated daily
· Provide "tier alerts" via some form of rapid communication (email, tweets, etc.) when customers move from one price tier to the next
· Provide a website calculator to help consumers determine if they would save money by switching to a time-of-use rate
· Allow consumers to authorize third parties to receive their backhauled smart meter data directly from the utility
· Set up a program to roll out home area networking devices to be directly connected with smart meters
That's for starters. We haven't made it through all 170 pages of the order but you can find it here. And please use the Talk Back comment form below to tell us what you think of the California PUC's approach.
Jesse Berst is the founder and chief analyst of Smart Grid News.com. He consults to smart grid companies seeking market entry advice and M&A advisory. A frequent keynoter at industry events in the US and abroad, he also serves on the Advisory Council of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Energy & Environment directorate.
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| Customer information |
| If the utility is going to charge me based on minute to minute pricing then they aught to provide me with detailed pricing by the second and provide me with projected forecasts of my costs. This is a NO BRAINER! Isn't this a monopoly? |
| mike trust - 07/29/2011 - 06:27 |
| You get what you pay for, and thensome. |
| Why is it that some folks honestly still believe that more government is always a better approach?? I agree that the utility should provide info to the customers IF they have already collected that info themselves. Example: If the utility actively collects this data already, then yes it should be made available to the customer. If this is not data that the utility normally collects for the average customer, then they should not be mandated to do so. If someone is so disposed to know their minute to minute consumption rates, there are 3rd party apps one can buy that tells them this. TED is one such device. People need to be very wary of what they ask for, they may very well get it, at a hefty price tag. Ok so you think you 'won' by forcing the utility to make amends to put this data out, who do you think is going to pay for this? The consumer, and given it's being run through government channels, I can guarantee you the price tag will be much more than you wished for. Again there is the privacy issue. This is the kind of data that absolutely needs to be kept private. In the wrong hands it can be bad. What happens when the police decide they wan't to see your consumption history, to see if it spiked, because a neighbor told them you might be growing pot? What happens when I decide to scope out your house to potentially rob it, and by watching your minute by minute use for a week or so, I now know when you wake up, when you goto work, when you are not home, and know when i can break in? I can also tell if you decided to take a day off, because your normal 8 am being 800 watts, it's now 1400 watts, because you are still home with the lights on watching tv. What happens when some local news station wants to run a scare story and looks at a neighborhood and puts out on the 5 o clock news, oh these people are the top ten users in your neighborhood, they are WASTEFUL!!! (This has happened here already) Why is this anybody elses business if they pay their bills like everyone else? Granted this is a bit off topic but for every good use of data, there are far more nefarious means it can be used too and will. Don't get me wrong, having a bigger picture of ones consumption patterns can be a great tool to help use it more wisely, but more data is not always better. |
| Aaron Scholten - 07/29/2011 - 07:04 |
| Unintended consequences? |
| This data could be used to identify pot growers using inside lighting. I wonder if that figured into the deliberations? I wonder if DEA is already getting that data? I hope not, and I hope this decision prevents that. |
| Roger Faulkner - 07/29/2011 - 08:59 |
| CPUC Protects Consumers and Utilities |
| The CPUC is to be commended. Their rules empower consumers by ensuring they get the data they need - and protect them by ensuring that NO data is released to ANYONE outside the utility without the consumer's knowledge and permission. The rules protect utilities by laying out clear rules of the road - and clarifying that utilities are not liable for a third party misusing the data when the consumer has authorized the third party to receive the data. The CPUC considered all of the issues very thoughtfully and came down with a balanced approach that promotes innovation while providing strong consumer protections. |
| Chris King - 07/29/2011 - 09:46 |
| CPUC data access order |
| not unlike banks informing variable-rate-mortgage customers about the next interest rate movement. Now if the market reaches the state where consumers can change their electric supply company like they can change their bank in addition to being able to change their load patterns, I think we are on to something big and good. |
| Edgar Almeida - 07/31/2011 - 00:45 |
| Consumer protection |
| I understand that many think this is overkill. However, the current situation is that there are NO standards for this. There is an anti-consumer attitude about consumer information across our current marketplace that needs to be changed. Once anyone gets info from/about consumers, they tend to assume it is theirs and that the consumer has no ownership. In the long run, that can't be the case if the marketplace is to be fair to both consumers and businesses. In my experience, it is difficult to make this type rule more protective after it is initiated than to make it less protective. As a consumer, I'd prefer to have the situation that exists because it means I'm more likely to get reasonable protection. Too many business folks don't want to bother with consumer rights to information and in general, there are few current requirements that are fair to consumers concerning our information. California is at least attempting to protect consumers from the onset so I think it's a step in the right direction. Right now it may seem that the information involved has little value, but in time, it is likely to become more and more valuable. If it's already considered "given away," which much info collected by grocery stores, drug stores, etc. is, it may be possible, for example, for people consumers would rather not know to obtain it. For example, energy usage might be connected with when someone is home and might be used to try to prove or disprove that a person was somewhere at a given time for personal reasons. We need to be careful what we do. Granted, it's easier for utilities if consumer protection doesn't exist, but since they are not likely to provide it on their own, and have natural tendencies to put their needs first, consumers need entities like the California PUC to level the playing field. |
| Irene Leech - 08/04/2011 - 06:52 |
| Smart Meters need to go |
| I hope these things are dumped for good or at least till they can prove they are safe. Who is right; the Government or the large Corporation? Neither! http://www.rense.com/general94/smt_dev.htm "In fact, the chronic bursts or pulsing of smart meters have not been proven to be biologically safe for anyone. Current federal standards are grossly out of date, not taking into account the growing levels of microwave radiation exposure people now get 24/7 from various sources. Furthermore, FDA/FCC standards are based solely on the heating effect of microwave radiation on a large, grown man, ignoring numerous studies that point to other effects, including irregular heartbeats, melatonin depletion, which affects sleep, and abnormal mast cell proliferation, which affects the immune system and inflammation levels." |
| Steven J Lewis - 09/19/2011 - 17:18 |
| You'll get your privacy in the grave |
| For me the privacy issue is moot. The meters aren't even UL approved. Why is that? The military has studied this technology extensively, so the gov. knows exactly what they are doing to us. Unless you live on a hundred acres, you can multiply a meter's effect by the thousands. This is nothing short of eugenics friends. Fight back people!! Don't get caught in the straw man argument about how we are going to be billed. The whole thing needs to STOP! NOW! PERIOD! Rather than Hitler's gas chambers, we will fry in a cage of electricity, that cage being our own homes! Every cell in our body has an electrical biology, so unless you aren't human, you will be gravely hurt by The Powers That Be. |
| Bette J. Arvin - 09/24/2011 - 05:43 |
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