Calif. Draft Would Subject Competitive Suppliers to Customer Privacy Rules

A California PUC draft decision (R. 08-12-009) would extend the advanced metering customer privacy protections previously adopted in D.11-07-056 for investor-owned electric utilities to the residential and small commercial customers of electric service providers (ESPs), and to the customers of Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs).

Most notably, the previously adopted rules applicable to electric utilities (Attachment D to Decision 11-07-056) specify that no entity covered by the rules shall use or disclose customer information covered by the rules for any secondary purpose without obtaining the customer's prior, express, written authorization for each type of secondary purpose.

A secondary purpose is defined as any purpose which is not used to:

(1) provide or bill for electrical power or gas,

(2) provide for system, grid, or operational needs,

(3) provide services as required by state or federal law or as specifically authorized by an order of the Commission, or

(4) plan, implement, or evaluate demand response, energy management, or energy efficiency programs under contract with an electrical corporation, under contract with the Commission, or as part of a Commission authorized program conducted by a governmental entity under the supervision of the Commission.

The complete rules can be found in Attachment B of the draft order (starting on page 60).

To enforce the D.11-07-056 privacy protections on ESPs serving small volume customers, the proposed decision would direct the electric utilities to file appropriate changes to their existing supplier rules and tariffs to include language consistent with Attachment D of D.11-07-056. Workshops would be held to develop specific tariff language.

In order to ensure that these privacy protections extend to the residential and small commercial customers of ESPs who obtain data from AMI, the draft would make Attachment D of D.11-07-056 a condition of service, and an ESP, as part of its application process, would be required to certify adherence to the privacy rules.

Additionally, the draft order would direct that an ESP's "Notice of Price, Terms and Condition of Service," pursuant to Sec. 394.5, shall be revised in accordance with Attachment D of D.11-07-056.

The proposed decision would not extend the privacy rules, however, to ESPs that serve only large and medium commercial customers and industrial customers; nor would the draft require that ESPs providing service to a full range of customers offer the specific privacy protections to any but their residential and small commercial customers.

The draft order would also apply the same privacy protection rules to CCAs, and would direct CCAs to file revised implementation plans with the PUC to incorporate such rules.

In regards to the request from the CCAs regarding the requirements in D.11-07-056 to provide customers with on-line access to customer information, electricity bill, usage and price information, and to provide authorized third parties with data access, the draft would find that it is not reasonable for CCAs to be required to provide such services to their customers or third parties. Since the utilities maintain the billing and metering services for CCAs, there is no reason to burden CCAs with developing on-line tools for their customers that are otherwise provided by the utility, the draft states.

The proposed decision also addresses customer privacy and data access for the natural gas utilities with advanced metering, which were not addressed in the PUC's prior order.