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SB-782 Energy data transparency.(2017-2018)

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Date Published: 09/24/2018 09:00 PM
SB782:v89#DOCUMENT

Senate Bill No. 782
CHAPTER 684

An act to amend Section 25402.10 of the Public Resources Code, and to amend Section 8380 of the Public Utilities Code, relating to energy.

[ Approved by Governor  September 22, 2018. Filed with Secretary of State  September 22, 2018. ]

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 782, Skinner. Energy data transparency.
Existing law requires each utility to maintain records of the energy usage data of all buildings to which it provides service for at least the most recent 12 complete calendar months and, upon the request and written authorization or secure electronic authorization of the owner, owner’s agent, or operator of a covered building, to deliver or otherwise provide aggregated energy usage data for a covered building to the owner, owner’s agent, building operator, or to the owner’s account in the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. Existing law defines a “covered building” to be a building with certain numbers and types of utility accounts.
This bill would additionally require an electrical, natural gas, steam, or fuel oil utility to provide to the owner, owner’s agent, or operator of a property with 2 or more buildings located on a single parcel or adjacent parcels, with same owner of record and with 5 or more active utility accounts, in aggregate, upon request, aggregate energy usage data for those buildings. Because this bill would impose additional duties on local publicly owned electric utilities, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Existing law prohibits an electrical corporation or a gas corporation from sharing, disclosing, or otherwise making accessible to a 3rd party a customer’s electrical or gas consumption data with certain exceptions. One of these exceptions is when the customer consents.
This bill would authorize the verification of customer consent through an electronic signature authorization process, and would specify the types of data eligible for release.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: YES  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(1) California has set a goal of generation at 33 percent of total retail sales of electricity in the state from eligible renewable energy resources by December 31, 2020, and 50 percent by December 31, 2030.
(2) California has also set a goal of doubling the energy efficiency of the state’s buildings by 2030.
(3) Data about the needs and constraints of the electricity grid and on energy use in different regions and grid-specific locations of California can help inform policies in support of these energy goals and help producers and users of energy serve the needs of the grid at the least cost to consumers.
(4) Data access improves customers’ ability to make informed decisions about their energy management.
(5) Transparency increases accountability for all industry participants and helps all parties in the market make informed decisions about when, where, and how to provide electricity in a way that reduces the need to build additional powerplants and transmission lines, resulting in lower costs for the ratepayer.
(6) Data transparency increases the pace and degree of innovation, economic development, and job growth resulting in new technologies that can lower the cost of renewable energy integration into the grid and lower costs for ratepayers in meeting the state’s energy goals.
(7) Expanding access to building-specific energy use data will aid the state in meeting its energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other goals.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature to require, consistent with state and federal regulations protecting security and sensitive information, maximum transparency and public review of technical data and analysis surrounding state regulations and the operation of the electric distribution grid.
(c) It is further the intent of the Legislature to obtain project-specific data on proposed utility investments in the distribution grid pertaining to distribution capacity, voltage support, and reliability or resilience.

SEC. 2.

 Section 25402.10 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read:

25402.10.
 (a) For the purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:
(1) “Benchmark” means to obtain information on the energy use in an entire building for a specific period to enable that usage to be tracked or compared against other buildings.
(2) “Covered building” for purposes of this section means either or both of the following:
(A) Any building with no residential utility accounts.
(B) Any building with five or more active utility accounts, residential or nonresidential.
(3) “Energy” means electricity, natural gas, steam, or fuel oil sold by a utility to a customer for end uses addressed by the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager system.
(4) “ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager” means the tool developed and maintained by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to track and assess the energy performance of buildings.
(b) On and after January 1, 2016, each utility shall maintain records of the energy usage data of all buildings to which they provide service for at least the most recent 12 complete calendar months.
(c) (1) Subject to the requirements of paragraph (2), beginning no later than January 1, 2017, each utility shall, upon the request and written authorization or secure electronic authorization of the owner, owner’s agent, or operator of a covered building, deliver or otherwise provide aggregated energy usage data for a covered building to the owner, owner’s agent, building operator, or to the owner’s account in the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. The commission may specify additional information to be delivered by utilities to enable building owners to complete benchmarking of the energy use in their buildings and in other systems or formats for information delivery and automation.
(2) The delivery of information by utilities pursuant to this section shall be subject to the following requirements:
(A) For covered buildings with three or more active utility accounts, each utility shall deliver information showing the aggregated energy usage data of all utility customers in the same building for each of the 12 prior months. Notwithstanding any other law, energy usage data aggregated in this manner shall not be deemed customer utility usage information or confidential information by the utility for purposes of delivery to the owner, owner’s agent, or operator of a building. The building owner and utility shall not have any liability for any use or disclosure of aggregated energy usage data delivered as required by this section.
(B) For covered buildings not subject to subparagraph (A), each utility shall deliver the information showing the aggregated energy usage data of all utility customers in each covered building for each of the prior 12 months if the accountholder provides written or electronic consent for the delivery of the accountholder’s energy usage data to the owner, owner’s agent, operator, or utility.
(C) Each utility shall deliver, upload, or otherwise provide aggregated energy usage data within four weeks of receiving a request from an owner, owner’s agent, or operator of a covered building.
(D) Each utility shall make available the covered building energy usage data aggregated at a monthly level unless otherwise specified by the commission.
(E) The building owner and utility shall not have any liability for any use or disclosure by others of usage information delivered as required by this section.
(d) The commission shall adopt regulations providing for the delivery to the commission and public disclosure of benchmarking of energy use for covered buildings, as follows:
(1) This subdivision shall not require the owner of a building with 16 or fewer residential utility accounts to collect or deliver energy usage information to the commission.
(2) The commission may do, but is not limited to doing, all of the following in regulations adopted pursuant to this subdivision:
(A) Identify and provide for the collection of the energy usage data for calculations for purpose of benchmarking of energy use.
(B) Identify and provide for the collection of the covered building characteristic information deemed necessary by the commission for the calculation of benchmarking of energy use.
(C) Specify the manner in which certain benchmarking of energy use shall be publicly disclosed.
(D) Determine which covered buildings, in addition to those described in paragraph (1), are not subject to the public disclosure requirement.
(E) Set a schedule to implement the requirements for public disclosure adopted by the commission.
(F) Determine if compliance with a local or county benchmarking program fulfills the commission’s requirements adopted pursuant to this subdivision.
(G) Identify categories of information it receives pursuant to this section that are protected from release under either the California Public Records Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 6250) of Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government Code) or the Information Practices Act of 1977 (Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 1798) of Title 1.8 of Part 4 of Division 3 of the Civil Code).
(3) The commission shall determine who will deliver the energy usage data and related information for any covered building to the commission.
(e) The commission may ensure timely and accurate compliance with the data submission requirements of this section by using the enforcement measures identified in Section 25321. An owner of a covered building, or its agents or operators, shall not be liable for any noncompliance due to the failure of a utility to provide the information required for compliance.
(f) For buildings that are not covered buildings, and for customer information that is not aggregated pursuant to subparagraph (A) of paragraph (2) of subdivision (c), the commission may adopt regulations prescribing how utilities shall either obtain the customer’s permission or determine that a building owner has obtained the customer’s permission, for the owner to receive aggregated energy usage data or, where applicable, individual customer usage information, including by use of electronic authorization and in a lease agreement between the owner and the customer.
(g) The reasonable costs of an electrical or gas corporation in delivering electrical or gas usage data pursuant to this section or other information as required under state or federal law or by an order of the commission shall be recoverable in rates evaluated and approved by the Public Utilities Commission.
(h) The reasonable costs of local publicly owned electric utilities in disclosing electrical usage data pursuant to this section may be considered “cost-effective demand-side management services to promote energy efficiency and energy conservation” and thereby reimbursable by their general fund.
(i) (1) For purposes of adopting or revising regulations pursuant to subdivision (d), the commission may include two or more buildings located on a single parcel or adjacent parcels with the same owner of record and with five or more active utility accounts, in aggregate, residential or nonresidential, as a single covered building, as defined in subparagraph (B) of paragraph (2) of subdivision (a).
(2) An electrical or gas utility shall provide to the owner, owner’s agent, or operator of a property containing two or more buildings on a single parcel or adjacent parcels with five or more active utility accounts, in aggregate, residential or nonresidential, upon request of the owner, agent, or operator, aggregate energy usage data on all such buildings in a manner provided pursuant to subdivision (c) as if those buildings are a single covered building as defined in subparagraph (B) of paragraph (2) of subdivision (a).
(j) Nothing in this section shall prevent a city or county from establishing its own benchmarking program requiring collection, delivery, and disclosure of building information.

SEC. 3.

 Section 8380 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read:

8380.
 (a) For purposes of this section, “electrical or gas consumption data” means data about a customer’s electrical or natural gas usage that is made available as part of an advanced metering infrastructure, and includes incremental and monthly meter-specific electricity data, to the extent produced by that infrastructure, and the name, account number, and address of the customer.
(b) (1) An electrical corporation or gas corporation shall not share, disclose, or otherwise make accessible to any third party a customer’s electrical or gas consumption data, except as provided in subdivision (e) or upon the consent of the customer. Customer consent may be verified through an electronic signature authorization process pursuant to the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (Title 2.5 (commencing with Section 1633.1) of Part 2 of Division 3 of the Civil Code).
(2) An electrical corporation or gas corporation shall not sell a customer’s electrical or gas consumption data or any other personally identifiable information for any purpose.
(3) The electrical corporation or gas corporation or its contractors shall not provide an incentive or discount to the customer for accessing the customer’s electrical or gas consumption data without the prior consent of the customer.
(4) An electrical or gas corporation that utilizes an advanced metering infrastructure that allows a customer to access the customer’s electrical and gas consumption data shall ensure that the customer has an option to access that data without being required to agree to the sharing of his or her personally identifiable information, including electrical or gas consumption data, with a third party.
(c) If an electrical corporation or gas corporation contracts with a third party for a service that allows a customer to monitor his or her electricity or gas usage, and that third party uses the data for a secondary commercial purpose, the contract between the electrical corporation or gas corporation and the third party shall provide that the third party prominently discloses that secondary commercial purpose to the customer and secures the customer’s consent to the use of his or her data for that secondary commercial purpose prior to the use of the data.
(d) An electrical corporation or gas corporation shall use reasonable security procedures and practices to protect a customer’s unencrypted electrical or gas consumption data from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure.
(e) (1) This section shall not preclude an electrical corporation or gas corporation from using customer aggregate electrical or gas consumption data for analysis, reporting, or program management if all information has been removed regarding the individual identity of a customer.
(2) This section shall not preclude an electrical corporation or gas corporation from disclosing a customer’s electrical or gas consumption data to a third party for system, grid, or operational needs, or the implementation of demand response, energy management, or energy efficiency programs, provided that, for contracts entered into after January 1, 2011, the utility 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, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure, and prohibits the use of the data for a secondary commercial purpose not related to the primary purpose of the contract without the customer’s prior consent to that use.
(3) This section shall not preclude an electrical corporation or gas corporation from disclosing electrical or gas consumption data as required or permitted under state or federal law or by an order of the commission.
(f) If a customer chooses to disclose his or her electrical or gas consumption data to a third party that is unaffiliated with, and has no other business relationship with, the electrical or gas corporation, the electrical or gas corporation shall not be responsible for the security of that data, or its use or misuse.

SEC. 4.

 No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because a local agency or school district has the authority to levy service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or level of service mandated by this act, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code.