Calif. Draft Would Require Third Party Access, Upon Customer Authorization, to Smart Meter Data

May 9, 2011
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A proposed California PUC decision would require the investor owned utilities to share customer data from advanced meters with authorized third parties upon affirmative customer consent (Rulemaking 08-12-009).

The draft (available here) would direct Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison to file Tier 3 advice letters with corresponding tariffs to provide third parties, when authorized by the consumer and when agreeing to the privacy protections set forth in the draft, with access to the usage data. These filings would be due within six months of a final order.

San Diego Gas & Electric, which currently offers third party access, would be directed to file tariffs conforming its current practice to any changes in the final decision.

Utilities would be directed to provide customers with convenient mechanisms for granting and revoking authorization for third party access to the information.

Usage information shall be made available to third parties through the "backhaul," defined as, after the utility hauls the data back from its smart meter to the utility's server, the utility shall then process the data and provide it to the third party.

Additionally, the utilities would be required to make retail pricing and usage information available to customers online one day later, in hourly or 15 minute increments, and updated at least daily.

Utilities would also be required to provide customers with bill-to-date, bill forecast data, projected month-end tiered rate, and notifications as ratepayers cross rate tiers, as well as a "rate option calculator" to help customers determine whether they are on the tariff that best serves them.

The draft would not require or direct SCE, SDG&E, and PG&E to use a specific technology to make this price information available to customers.

The draft would also not require the provision of real-time pricing information to customers, given the complexity of current utility tariff schedules in which the rates and tiers faced by most residential customers vary by location, by day, and by amount used within the billing period. The Commission expects to re-examine the real-time information issue in the context of the deployment of HAN and HAN-enabled devices.

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