Bill Text: CA SB1476 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Public utilities: customer privacy: advanced metering

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2010-09-29 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 497, Statutes of 2010. [SB1476 Detail]

Download: California-2009-SB1476-Amended.html

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BILL NUMBER: SB 1476	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  JUNE 10, 2010
	AMENDED IN SENATE  APRIL 20, 2010
	AMENDED IN SENATE  APRIL 5, 2010

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Padilla

                        FEBRUARY 19, 2010

   An act to add  Sections 387.7 and 714 to  
Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 8380) to Division 4.1 of  ,
and to repeal Section 393 of, the Public Utilities Code, relating to
public utilities.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 1476, as amended, Padilla. Public utilities: customer privacy:
advanced metering infrastructure.
    (1)    Under existing law, the
Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public
utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations, as
defined.  The existing Public Utilities Act requires every
public utility to furnish and maintain adequate, efficient, just, and
reasonable service, instrumentalities, equipment, and facilities as
are necessary to promote the safety, health, comfort, and convenience
of its patrons, employees, and the public. 
   Existing law requires the commission to conduct a pilot study of
certain customers of each electrical corporation to determine the
relative value to ratepayers of information, rate design, and
metering innovations using specified approaches, but prohibits this
data from being used for any commercial purpose, unless authorized by
the customer.
   This bill would repeal the provisions relating to the 
study, and   pilot   study. 
    The bill  would require an electrical corporation
 ,   or  gas corporation  , or
local publicly owned electric utility  that utilizes an
advanced metering infrastructure that allows a customer to access the
customer's electrical or gas consumption data, as defined, to ensure
that the customer has an option to access that data without being
required to agree to the sharing of his or her personally
identifiable information, including electrical or gas consumption
data, with a 3rd party. The bill would prohibit  a local
publicly owned electric utility,   an  electrical
corporation  ,  or gas corporation from sharing,
 selling,  disclosing, or otherwise making
accessible to any 3rd party a customer's electrical or gas
consumption data, except as specified, and would require those
utilities to use reasonable security procedures and practices to
protect a customer's electrical and gas consumption data from
unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure.
 The bill would prohibit an electrical corporation or gas
corporation from selling a customer's electrical or gas consumption
data or any other personally identifiable information for any
purpose. The bill would ad   opt near identical requirements
applicable to a local publicly owned electric utility with respect
to electrical consumption data, as defined.  
   (2) Under existing law, a violation of any provision of the Public
Utilities Act, or of any of the rules or orders issued under the
act, is a crime.  
   Because the provisions of this bill are within the act, a
violation of these provisions would impose a state-mandated local
program by creating a new crime.  
   (3) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse
local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.  
   This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason. 
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program:  yes   no  .


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   SECTION 1   .    Section 393 of the 
 Public Utilities Code   is repealed.  
   393.  (a) The commission shall conduct a pilot study of the
residential and small commercial customers of each electrical
corporation, where the rate level established in subdivision (a) of
Section 368 is no longer in effect, to determine the relative value
to ratepayers of various information, rate design, and metering
innovations for helping residential and small commercial customers
better manage their electricity use. The commission shall compare the
net benefits, including, but not limited to, all of the following
approaches:
   (1) The retrofit or replacement of residential and small
commercial meters to provide real-time usage information to a
standard output interface that is connected to a visual display
module within the customer's home or business that presents
information, at minimum, on current usage and historic usage. The
commission may also test the effects of providing greater amounts of
information display capability including, but not limited to,
historic usage and estimated aggregated costs for the billing period,
associated with the customer's bundled rate structure. The standard
output interface of the meter must be multiply accessible to allow
the installation by the customer, an electrical corporation, or a
registered energy service provider of energy information-based energy
management applications.
   (2) The replacement of residential and small commercial meters
with time-of-use meters that distinguish and measure peak and
off-peak energy use. Subject to the approval of the commission,
electrical corporations shall offer a rate schedule to customers that
differentially price seasonal on-peak, mid-peak, and off-peak energy
use that reflects the electrical corporation's actual energy cost.
The meters used shall have the same standard usage information output
interface as in paragraph (1).
   (3) The replacement of residential and small commercial meters
with meters that facilitate the offering of hourly real-time pricing.
Subject to the approval of the commission, electrical corporations
shall offer a rate schedule to customers that prices electricity
usage at the electrical corporation's hourly cost. The meters used
shall have the same standard usage information output interface as in
paragraph (1) .
   (b) The commission shall ensure that sufficient valid randomized
customer use data, normalized for weather, occupancy, energy cost
differences and other potentially confounding factors, are collected
to respond to, but are not limited to, all of the following
questions:
   (1) To what extent is the real-time availability of customer usage
information to customers sufficient to bring about a significant
change in customer energy consumption behavior?
   (2) To what extent is the availability of customer usage
information to customers sufficient to stimulate innovation in energy
information-based energy management applications?
   (3) What is the difference in energy consumption behavior between
customers that have enhanced access to energy consumption information
and those who have time-of-use rates?
   (4) Do the differences in usage and net cost savings, if any,
between customers who have enhanced energy information and those who
have time-of-use rates justify the broader offering of time-of-use
metering capability?
   (5) What is the difference in energy consumption behavior between
customers who consume electricity under hourly real-time pricing and
customers who either have enhanced information access or time-of-use
pricing? Does the value of these differences justify the broader
offering of hourly real-time pricing?
   (6) What issues should be addressed prior to systemwide
deployment?
   (c) In conducting the pilot study, the commission shall ensure
that all of the following study conditions are observed:
   (1) No more than the minimum number of customers required to
provide a statistically valid sample for a customer group in a pilot
study as required by subdivision (a) are included. The aggregate
total number of customers participating in a customer group in a
pilot study may not exceed 3 percent of the electrical corporation's
customers.
   (2) Customers from each electrical corporation are selected from
comparable geographic areas, from a variety of climate zones, and
from a range of socioeconomic circumstances. In addition, control
groups of customers shall be established for each study against whom
the behavior of the study group participants may be compared.
   (3) No customer is required to participate in a pilot study.
However, customer rates of participation and reasons for
nonparticipation for each study condition shall be monitored and
incorporated in the study results, as appropriate.
   (4) The offerings for the customers in the service territories of
each electrical corporation that participates in a pilot study
required by subdivision (a) are identical among electrical
corporations to allow the comparison of data and results. However,
electrical corporations may test alternative technological solutions,
not including those relating to the standard usage information
output interface specified in subdivision (e), to offer hourly
real-time pricing for the pilot study in paragraph (3) of subdivision
(a).
   (5) Notwithstanding paragraph (4), the commission may waive the
requirement imposed by that paragraph, or otherwise alter a pilot
study, if the commission finds that it is in the public interest.
   (6) All interested energy service providers and equipment
manufacturers are included in the design and implementation of the
pilot study to ensure that its results may be used to guide the
subsequent deployment of the appropriate customer usage information
infrastructure.
   (d) The commission shall report to the Legislature on the initial
results of the pilot study on or before March 31, 2002. The
commission shall report on the results of the study for electrical
corporations that continue to be under the rate level established in
subdivision (a) of Section 368 at the effective date of this act
within 15 months from the time when that rate level is no longer in
effect.
   (e) The study data shall be available to the public. The data
shall be provided in a way that does not reveal customer-specific
information.
   (f) The standard usage information output interface used in pilot
study elements set forth in paragraphs (1) to (3), inclusive, of
subdivision (a) shall meet all of the following specifications:
   (1) All electrical corporation retrofits or meter replacements
shall conform to the same American National Standards Institute,
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers or other standard,
as appropriate, and provide the same standard output interface.
   (2) The technology selected shall be the most cost-effective,
including its use of electricity on a life-cycle basis.
   (3) The standard output interface selected shall allow a customer'
s data to be multiply accessed in a secure and protected manner.
   (4) The standard output interface shall be installed in a way that
does not compromise customer or worker safety or the integrity or
accuracy of the meter.
   (5) Because some older vintage meters cannot be readily
retrofitted, the decision regarding whether to retrofit or replace a
meter must be made on the basis of cost-effectiveness.
   (6) Access by electrical corporations and third-party providers to
the usage information output interface shall be at the sole
discretion of the customer, except to the extent that the customer
enters into a billing relationship with an electrical corporation or
energy service provider.
   (7) To ensure customer privacy, unless specifically authorized by
the customer, information based upon customer data may not be used
for any commercial purpose.
   (8) Customers receiving service under the California Alternative
Rates for Energy program under Section 739.1 do not pay a higher
distribution rate attributable to participating in any of the pilot
studies in subdivision (a).
   (g) The commission shall allow electrical corporations to include
in their distribution rates the reasonable investment and operating ,
installing, accounting, and evaluating costs of the pilot studies,
those costs to be allocated only among the customer classes
participating in the study. 
   SEC. 2.    Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 8380)
is added to Division 4.1 of the   Public Utilities Code
  , to read:  
      CHAPTER 5.  PRIVACY PROTECTIONS FOR ENERGY CONSUMPTION DATA


   8380.  (a) (1) For purposes of this section, "electrical or gas
consumption data" means data about a customer's electrical or natural
gas usage that is made available as part of an advanced metering
infrastructure.
   (2) For purposes of this section, an authorization,
acknowledgment, or consent is "written" or "in writing" if made by an
"electronic record" that includes a "digital signature" as those
terms are defined in Section 1633 of the Civil Code.
   (b) An electrical or gas corporation that utilizes an advanced
metering infrastructure that allows a customer to access the customer'
s electrical and gas consumption data shall ensure that the customer
has an option to access that data without being required to agree to
the sharing of his or her personally identifiable information,
including electrical or gas consumption data, with a third party. The
electrical corporation or gas corporation shall not contract with
any third party that facilitates access to electrical or gas
consumption data that provides an incentive or discount to the
customer for accessing his or her electrical or gas consumption data,
except as provided in paragraph (3) of subdivision (b).
   (c) (1) An electrical corporation or gas corporation shall not
share, disclose, or otherwise make accessible to any third party a
customer's electrical or gas consumption data, except as provided in
paragraph (3).
   (2) An electrical corporation or gas corporation shall not sell a
customer's electrical or gas consumption data or any other personally
identifiable information for any purpose.
   (3) An electrical corporation or gas corporation may make a
customer's electrical or gas consumption data accessible to a third
party if the customer was given the option, pursuant to subdivision
(b), to access electrical or gas consumption data without being
required to share personally identifiable information with a third
party and the customer has given his or her express written consent
for a demand response or energy efficiency program, provided by a
third party, that manages the customer's consumption of energy in
response to supply or pricing conditions.
   (d) An electrical corporation or gas corporation shall use
reasonable security procedures and practices to protect a customer's
electrical or gas consumption data from unauthorized access,
destruction, use, modification, or disclosure.
   (e)  (1) Nothing in this section shall preclude an electrical
corporation or gas corporation from using customer aggregate
electrical or gas consumption data for analysis, reporting, or
program management if all information has been removed regarding the
individual identity of a customer.
   (2) Nothing in this section shall preclude an electrical
corporation or gas corporation from disclosing a customer's
electrical or gas consumption data to a third party for system, grid,
or other operational needs provided that the utility has required by
contract that the third party implement and maintain reasonable
security procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of the
information, to protect the personal information from unauthorized
access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure.
   (3) Nothing in this section shall preclude an electrical
corporation or gas corporation from disclosing electrical or gas
consumption data as required under state or federal law or by an
order of the commission.
   (f) If a customer chooses to disclose his or her electrical or gas
consumption data to a third party that is unaffiliated with, and has
no other business relationship with, the electrical or gas
corporation, the electrical or gas corporation shall not be
responsible for the security of that data.
   8381.  (a) (1) For purposes of this section, "electrical
consumption data" means data about a customer's electrical usage that
is made available as part of an advanced metering infrastructure.
   (2) For purposes of this section, an authorization,
acknowledgment, or consent is "written" or "in writing" if made by an
"electronic record" that includes a "digital signature" as those
terms are defined in Section 1633 of the Civil Code.
   (b) A local publicly owned electric utility that utilizes an
advanced metering infrastructure that allows a customer to access the
customer's electrical consumption data shall ensure that the
customer has an option to access that data without being required to
agree to the sharing of his or her personally identifiable
information, including electrical consumption data, with a third
party. The local publicly owned electric utility shall not contract
with any third party that facilitates access to electrical
consumption data that provides an incentive or discount to the
customer for accessing his or her electrical consumption data, except
as provided in paragraph (3) of subdivision (b).
   (c) (1) A local publicly owned electric utility shall not share,
disclose, or otherwise make accessible to any third party a customer'
s electrical consumption data, except as provided in paragraph (3).
   (2) A local publicly owned electric utility shall not sell a
customer's electrical consumption data or any other personally
identifiable information for any purpose.
   (3) A local publicly owned electric utility may make a customer's
electrical consumption data accessible to a third party if the
customer was given the option, pursuant to subdivision (b), to access
electrical consumption data without being required to share
personally identifiable information with a third party and the
customer has given his or her express written consent for a demand
response or energy efficiency program, provided by a third party,
that manages the customer's consumption of electricity in response to
electrical supply or pricing conditions.
   (d) A local publicly owned electric utility shall use reasonable
security procedures and practices to protect a customer's electrical
consumption data from unauthorized access, destruction, use,
modification, or disclosure.
   (e) (1) Nothing in this section shall preclude a local publicly
owned electric utility from using customer aggregate electrical
consumption data for analysis, reporting, or program management if
all information has been removed regarding the individual identity of
a customer.
   (2) Nothing in this section shall preclude a local publicly owned
electric utility from disclosing a customer's electrical consumption
data to a third party for system, grid, or other operational needs
provided that the utility has required by contract that the third
party implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and
practices appropriate to the nature of the information, to protect
the personal information from unauthorized access, destruction, use,
modification, or disclosure.
   (3) Nothing in this section shall preclude a local publicly owned
electric utility from disclosing electrical consumption data as
required under state or federal law.
   (f) If a customer chooses to disclose his or her electrical
consumption data to a third party that is unaffiliated with, and has
no other business relationship with, the local publicly owned
electric utility, the utility shall not be responsible for the
security of that data.  
  SECTION 1.    Section 387.7 is added to the Public
Utilities Code, to read:
   387.7.  (a) For purposes of this section, "electrical consumption
data" means data about a customer's electrical usage that is made
available as part of an advanced metering infrastructure.
   (b) A local publicly owned electric utility that utilizes an
advanced metering infrastructure that allows a customer to access the
customer's electrical consumption data shall ensure that the
customer has an option to access that data without being required to
agree to the sharing of his or her personally identifiable
information, including electrical consumption data, with a third
party. The local publicly owned electric utility shall not partner
with any third party that facilitates access to electrical
consumption data that provides an incentive or discount to the
customer for accessing their electrical consumption data.
   (c) (1) A local publicly owned electric utility shall not share,
sell, disclose, or otherwise make accessible to any third party a
customer's electrical consumption data, except as provided in
paragraph (2).
   (2) A local publicly owned electric utility may make a customer's
electrical consumption data accessible to a third party in either of
the following circumstances:
   (A) The customer was given the option, pursuant to subdivision
(b), to access electrical consumption data without being required to
share personally identifiable information with a third party, the
customer has declined that option, and the customer has instead
chosen, without revoking that choice, to access his or her electrical
consumption data from that third party.
   (B) The electrical consumption data is accessed or shared by a
third party or local publicly owned electric utility with the
customer's prior express written consent for a demand response
program that manages the customer's consumption of electricity in
response to electrical supply or pricing conditions.
   (d) A local publicly owned electric utility shall use reasonable
security procedures and practices to protect a customer's electrical
consumption data from unauthorized access, destruction, use,
modification, or disclosure.
   (e) (1) Nothing in this section shall preclude a local publicly
owned electric utility from using customer aggregate electrical
consumption data for analysis, reporting, or program management if
all information has been removed regarding the individual identity of
a customer.
   (2) Nothing in this section shall preclude a local publicly owned
electric utility from disclosing a customer's electrical consumption
data to a third party for billing purposes.  
  SEC. 2.    Section 393 of the Public Utilities
Code is repealed.  
  SEC. 3.    Section 714 is added to the Public
Utilities Code, to read:
   714.  (a) For purposes of this section, "electrical or gas
consumption data" means data about a customer's electrical or natural
gas usage that is made available as part of an advanced metering
infrastructure.
   (b) An electrical or gas corporation that utilizes an advanced
metering infrastructure that allows a customer to access the customer'
s electrical and gas consumption data shall ensure that the customer
has an option to access that data without being required to agree to
the sharing of his or her personally identifiable information,
including electrical or gas consumption data, with a third party. The
electrical corporation or gas corporation shall not partner with any
third party that facilitates access to electrical or gas consumption
data that provides an incentive or discount to the customer for
accessing their electrical or gas consumption data.
   (c) (1) An electrical corporation or gas corporation shall not
share, sell, disclose, or otherwise make accessible to any third
party a customer's electrical or gas consumption data, except as
provided in paragraph (2).
   (2) An electrical corporation or gas corporation may make a
customer's electrical or gas consumption data accessible to a third
party in either of the following circumstances:
   (A) The customer was given the option, pursuant to subdivision
(b), to access electrical or gas consumption data without being
required to share personally identifiable information with a third
party, the customer has declined that option, and the customer has
instead chosen, without revoking that choice, to access his or her
electrical or gas consumption data from that third party.
   (B) The electrical or gas consumption data is accessed or shared
by a third party, electrical corporation, or gas corporation with the
customer's prior express written consent for a demand response
program that manages the customer's consumption of energy in response
to supply or pricing conditions.
   (d) An electrical corporation or gas corporation shall use
reasonable security procedures and practices to protect a customer's
electrical or gas consumption data from unauthorized access,
destruction, use, modification, or disclosure.
   (e) (1) Nothing in this section shall preclude an electrical
corporation or gas corporation from using customer aggregate
electrical or gas consumption data for analysis, reporting, or
program management if all information has been removed regarding the
individual identity of a customer.
   (2) Nothing in this section shall preclude an electrical
corporation or gas corporation from disclosing a customer's
electrical or gas consumption data to a third party for billing
purposes.  
  SEC. 4.    No reimbursement is required by this
act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local
agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a
new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or
changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of
Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a
crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the
California Constitution.