Today, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) approved recommended improvements to streamline the Smart Meter Texas (SMT) portal at the Commission’s open meeting. Texas will update the Smart Meter Texas portal to be more in line with national standards such as Green Button, which provides a standardized data format for software developers to develop application programming interfaces (APIs) with the system.
Compared to the regulated world of utilities, the Cambridge Analytica incident feels like the Wild West of data sharing. While technical topics such as XML are involved with the sharing of energy data, the most important issue is not technical at all. Rather, it’s about consent: In online transactions, how can we make sure that customers know what they’re doing?
Now that energy data access is the law of the land for over 25 million utility customers, it is worth looking at how other sectors of the economy have handled issues of large-scale digitalization of personal records. In this post, we look at other industries both inside and outside the U.S. from the perspective of consumer data: How and when is it difficult to access, even when the customer’s permission is obtained? And what might the current state of data sharing in healthcare and personal finance portend about utility data in the years to come?
As we noted last fall, Smart Meter Texas (SMT) was ahead of its time -- a great concept, but poorly executed. But a comprehensive settlement agreement filed this week at the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) promises the most significant improvements to SMT since 2014.
Today, Mission:data Coalition and the Advanced Energy Management Alliance released a new report, titled "Energy Data: Unlocking Innovation with Smart Policy."
#1. SMT’s conceptual design was ahead of its time. In 2008, while some states’ smart meter deployments were delayed by large protests, and other utilities struggled to understand and operationalize “big data” concepts for the first time, Texas embarked on what is still today a cutting edge design: a centralized web portal across most of the state.
Attendees of NARUC's Summer Policy Summit in San Diego were encouraged to download a NARUC app to facilitate in-person meetings. There’s just one problem: The smartphone app would violate the privacy rules adopted by commissions in several states.
A settlement agreement filed today with Xcel Energy for its $562 million proposed smart meter investment in Colorado would require Xcel to offer Green Button Connect.
Did you miss our webinars December 8th or December 15th? View the recordings below. Thanks to our great speakers and Dan Delurey of Wedgemere Group for putting these on.
Note: Your email address will be needed to view the presentation.
MACH Energy, a leading provider of energy and water management software services and solutions, today announced the company has joined the Mission:data Coalition, an advocacy coalition of technology companies dedicated to promoting and facilitating customer access to their energy usage information to enable increased energy savings in homes and businesses.
We applaud last week’s Illinois Commerce Commission order directing Commonwealth Edison and Ameren Illinois to take the first step to provide consumers with electronic access to their own electricity usage data gathered by advanced meters, helping consumers save energy and money.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 18, 2016
The Mission:data Coalition, a coalition of technology companies delivering consumer-focused energy savings for homes and businesses, today applauded the New York Public Service Commission’s approval of ConEd’s AMI business plan to deploy advanced metering infrastructure on the condition that the utility provide both Home Area Network (“HAN”) functionality and implement Green Button Connect. This represents a significant win for New York consumers who will be empowered with free, easy access to their own energy usage data, a key enabler to the use of new technologies that save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“Mission:data applauds the Commission for its leadership in implementing advanced metering in a way that will provide New Yorkers access to their own energy usage data – a powerful new tool to help consumers reduce their electric bills,” said Jim Hawley, Director of the Mission:data Coalition. “According to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, giving consumers access to their usage data can enable them to reduce energy use by 12% or more. By making it clear that consumers must receive prompt, convenient access to their own data and broad access to third party tools, this Order positions New York as a national leader in consumer empowerment and data-driven energy efficiency.”
"Con Edison makes several strong arguments for adopting Green Button Connect: it's secure, it's a nation-wide standard, and it empowers customers with access to a wide range of efficiency solutions,” said Michael Murray, Chief Technology Strategist for the Mission:data Coalition. “We're immensely pleased that Con Edison will be providing this foundational technology to support a clean and distributed energy future.”
When implemented, the Commission’s action will expand the number of advanced meters nation-wide for which data access has been enabled to more than 28 million.
-------
The Mission:data Coalition is a coalition of more than 35 energy management technology companies helping residential and business consumers save energy through advanced, data-driven technologies. The coalition works in states throughout the country on behalf of consumer-friendly data access policies to help consumers save energy and money. More information about the Mission:data Coalition can be found at www.missiondata.org.
