Efforts to modernize the U.S. electricity network with a variety of smart grid technologies are bringing about a secure, sustainable and reliable electric grid and a number of benefits for consumers, among them the ability to keep track of and control their energy use for savings on their electric bills. But one stubborn problem has yet to be satisfactorily addressed: how to ensure the privacy of customers’ energy use data.
That one issue may be the largest complaint about smart grid technologies now that smart meters are capable of generating massive amounts of data that help the smart grid run. And that includes information about customers. Privacy advocates and others have warned that smart meter data could be used to spy on customers and determine when they are home — among other alarming allegations.
A few years ago, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Electricity and Energy Reliability, the Smart Grid Task Force and other government agencies undertook developing what is referred to as a Voluntary Code of Conduct (VCC), a series of guidelines for utilities and others working with customer energy use data to ensure customer privacy.
The effort to create the VCC began a few years ago, and has included public comment solicitations, workshops and meetings with stakeholders and others to help with development of the guidelines. A webinar held in mid-December 2014 wrapped up the development phase and it appears a final version of the VCC will be released following a round of final review with utilities and other stakeholders that will take place in the months to come.
The elements of the guideline include notifying customers about the privacy policies of utilities and others providing service, at least some degree of customer control over their data, ensuring data security and compliance.
While a program of voluntary compliance may not seem to be the best solution, it will have to do until legal questions about whether current federal laws apply to the smart grid have been decided, and that is expected to be a long process.
Written by Doug Peeples and originally posted on Smart Grid News