Protecting Consumer Privacy while Building a Smarter Grid

The US Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, in coordination with the Federal Smart Grid Task Force, finalized a 22-month multi-stakeholder effort to develop a Voluntary Code of Conduct for utilities and third parties on protecting electricity consumers’ Customer Data which includes energy usage information.

The VCC addresses and includes provision for the following key principles:

• Consumer Notice and Awareness: Customers should be given prior notice about privacy-related policies and practices by service providers.
• Customer Choice and Consent: Customers should have a degree of control over access to their own Customer Data.
• Customer Data Access and Participation: Customers should have access to their own Customer Data and should have the ability to participate in its maintenance.
• Integrity and Security: Customer data should be as accurate as reasonably possible and secured against unauthorized access.
• Self-Enforcement Management and Redress: Enforcement mechanisms should be in place to ensure compliance with the foregoing principles.