This bill limits how certain state-regulated electric utilities may use data collected by smart meters. It prohibits using, licensing, selling, or otherwise monetizing a customer’s personal consumption data except for specified operational reasons. The bill requires each covered utility to file an annual report with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) listing what smart meter data it collected, how it used that data, and with whom it shared the data. If the FTC finds a utility used personal consumption data in violation of the rule, the utility must credit the affected customer’s bill an amount equal to three times the revenue tied to that improper use. Utilities may not recover those credit costs from customers. The FTC enforces the rule under its unfair or deceptive acts authority and will set reasonable data security and retention standards for permitted uses. The law creates a federal baseline but does not stop States from keeping stronger protections. The bill defines key terms, including authorized operational purposes (billing, outage management, grid reliability, regulatory compliance, and consumer-authorized demand response), covered utility, electric consumer, personal consumption data, and smart meter.
The bill limits commercialization of smart meter data, increases transparency through annual FTC reporting, creates a financial remedy for improper use of data, and directs the FTC to set security and retention standards. These provisions are framed as protections for consumers’ smart meter information.
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