Citation[]
U.S. Department of Energy, Data Access and Privacy Issues Related to Smart Grid Technologies (Oct. 5, 2010) (full-text).
Overview[]
This report by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) complements DOE‘s companion report, Informing Federal Smart Grid Policy: The Communications Requirements of Electric Utilities. Both reports are also components of the federal government‘s much broader efforts to facilitate the adoption and deployment of various Smart Grid technologies.
This report and its companion report also respond to recommendations directed toward DOE in the National Broadband Plan (NBP), authored by the FCC at the direction of Congress. The NBP seeks to ensure that every American has access to broadband capability. The NBP also includes a detailed strategy for achieving affordability and maximizing use of broadband to advance consumer welfare, civic participation, public safety and homeland security, health care delivery, energy independence and efficiency, education, entrepreneurial activity, job creation and economic growth, and other national purposes.
As part of this strategy, the NBP recommended that DOE evaluate the overall communications needs of the Smart Grid, consider consumer-data-accessibility policies when evaluating Smart Grid grant applications, and report on the states‘ progress toward enacting consumer data accessibility and develop best practices guidance for states. This report implements the latter two recommendations, while the companion report implements the first recommendation.
Contents[]
The Report consists of two main components. The first section, Key Findings, summarizes DOE‘s impressions of the information it collected in the spring and summer of 2010 during its proceeding on the data privacy and data security issues raised by Smart Grid technologies like advanced metering. The section provides a summary of developing trends, consensuses, and potential best practices emerging as States use or adapt existing legal regimes to accommodate the deployment of Smart Grid technologies.
The second section, Summary of Public Comments and Information, provides a more comprehensive summary of the comments, both written and transcribed, that DOE received in response to the Request for Information (RFI) and during the public roundtable discussion conducted during the preparation of the report.