By: SGN Staff

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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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