Bill Text: NH HB297 | 2016 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: Protecting individual customer data from disclosure by a public utility.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 2-1)
Status: (Passed) 2016-06-20 - Signed by Governor Hassan 06/15/2016; Chapter 258; Eff. 8/14/2016 [HB297 Detail]
Download: New_Hampshire-2016-HB297-Chaptered.html
CHAPTER 258
HB 297 - FINAL VERSION
10Mar2016... 0295h
05/12/2016 1841s
1June2016... 2126EBA
2016 SESSION
06/09
HOUSE BILL 297
AN ACT protecting individual customer data from disclosure by a public utility.
SPONSORS: Rep. Kurk, Hills 2; Rep. Borden, Rock 24; Sen. Bradley, Dist 3
COMMITTEE: Science, Technology and Energy
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This bill protects individual customer data from disclosure by a service provider that receives such data as a result of electric, natural gas, or water consumption.
This bill also requires the public utilities commission to make certain information available in a confidential manner to the consumer advocate when complaints are filed.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
10Mar2016... 0295h
05/12/2016 1841s
1June2016... 2126EBA 15-0659
06/09
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Sixteen
AN ACT protecting individual customer data from disclosure by a public utility.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
258:1 New Subdivisions; Public Utilities Commission; Privacy Policies for Individual Customer Data; Confidential Data Filed at Public Utilities Commission. Amend RSA 363 by inserting after section 36 the following new subdivisions:
Privacy Policies for Individual Customer Data
363:37 Definitions. In this subdivision:
I. “Individual customer data” means information that is collected as part of providing electric, natural gas, water, or related services to a customer that can identify, singly or in combination, that specific customer, including the name, address, account number, quantity, characteristics, or time of consumption by the customer.
II. “Service provider” means a public utility, as defined by RSA 362:2; a competitive electricity supplier, under RSA 374-F:7; an aggregator, as defined by RSA 53-E:2, II; a rural electric cooperative, under RSA 301:57; suppliers of natural gas, under RSA 362:4-b; and any other service provider that receives individual customer data from electric, natural gas, or water consumption.
III. “Primary purpose” means the main reason for the collection, storage, use, or disclosure of individual customer data which is limited to:
(a) Providing or billing for electrical or gas service.
(b) Meeting system, grid, or operational needs.
(c) Implementing demand response, customer assistance, energy management, or energy efficiency programs.
363:38 Duties and Responsibilities of Service Providers.
I. No service provider shall:
(a) Share, disclose, or otherwise make accessible to any third party a customer’s individual customer data, except as provided in paragraph V or upon the express consent of the customer.
(b) Sell individual customer data for any purpose without the express consent of the customer.
(c) Provide an incentive or discount to the customer for accessing individual customer data, provided, however, that nothing shall prevent a service provider from providing consideration to a customer for reducing demand as part of a demand response, energy management, or energy efficiency program in which customer usage data is required to measure or verify such reduction. II. Service providers shall:
(a) Collect, store, use, and disclose only as much individual customer data as is necessary to accomplish primary purposes.
(b) Use individual customer data solely for primary purposes.
III. A service provider that allows customer access to electric, natural gas, or water consumption data shall allow customer access to that data without requiring disclosure of that customer’s individual customer data to third parties.
IV. A service provider shall use reasonable security procedures and practices to protect individual customer data from unauthorized access, use, destruction, modification, or disclosure.
V.(a) Nothing in this section shall preclude a service provider from using aggregate customer data for analysis, reporting, or program management after information that identifies an individual customer is removed.
(b) Nothing in this section shall preclude a service provider from disclosing a customer’s individual data to a third party for system, grid, or operational needs, or the implementation of demand response, customer assistance, energy management, or energy efficiency programs, provided that the service provider for contracts entered into after January 1, 2017, 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, use, destruction, modification, or disclosure, and to prohibit the use of the data for a secondary commercial purpose not related to the primary purpose of the contract without the express consent of the customer.
(c) Nothing in this section shall preclude a service provider from disclosing electric, natural gas, or water consumption data required under state or federal law, or which is identified as information subject to warrant or subpoena or by an order of the commission.
Confidential Data Filed at the Public Utilities Commission
363:39 Complaints to the Commission. When complaints to the public utilities commission are initiated by residential customers, the commission shall provide to the consumer advocate access to the complaint, by paper or electronically, with the customer name blocked out, at the same time as the commission forwards the complaint to the utility in compliance with commission rules.
258:2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.
Approved: June 15, 2016
Effective Date: August 14, 2016
