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Broker Wants To Require Texas Retail Providers To Include New Customer-Specific Code On All Bills As Part of SMT Access

April 26, 2017

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Copyright 2010-17 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com

Awesome Power, as part of comments to the Public Utility Commission of Texas concerning Smart Meter Texas (SMT) in Project 42786, has proposed that retail electric providers be required to include on all bills a new, unique code that would facilitate a new customer registration process for SMT

"The current registration system is bulky and pseudo-secure. Anyone can create an account for an address by reading the smart meter directly from the physical meter (which resides on the exterior of the building) and guessing REP for that address (with unlimited chances to guess). The ESI ID is publicly available, and all other required fields are not specific to that address," Awesome Power said

"Clearly, registration is a difficult issue to solve, as it requires the submission of private information to which only the owner of that address has access, apart from the REP of Record. As we see it, there is only one solution to make a truly secure registration process, which consequently is a much more convenient process than having to look up a meter number and a provider," Awesome Power said

"This alternate registration process would only require two address-specific fields: the ESI ID, and a SMT Registration Code (SMTRC)," Awesome Power said

The SMTRC, a new concept, "would be a string of characters (much like the Account Authorization Code currently used on SMT) delivered privately to an address every month through the electric bill. In effect, this amounts to a non-private field (ESI ID) and a private field (SMTRC), which resembles the typical username/password archetype," Awesome Power said

"The monthly electric bill is the best method for sending the SMTRC, as it is the most universal and secure method of delivery. In addition, it could be printed right next to the ESI ID to make the registration process even simpler for users," Awesome Power said

Furthermore, "[i]n order to ensure that a person who previously resided at an address cannot create an account for that address using an old SMTRC, the code for an address would change whenever that resident moved out. Of course, even if a prior resident of an address could create an account for that address (which wouldn't be possible with SMTRC cycling), this is an improvement over the current process, as this is entirely possible with the ESI ID + meter number + provider approach," Awesome Power said

"The difficulty of this approach lies in the initial implementation; a system will need to be put in place to distribute SMTRCs to REPs and making sure that electric bills include SMTRCs. However, the benefits in terms of security and ease of registration are entirely worth it," Awesome Power said

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