Right Now is the Time to Address Privacy Issues and the Smart Grid
Last week, two events generated press coverage about privacy advocates sounding the alarm about privacy and the smart grid. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) held a smart grid hearing which included a focus on consumer privacy and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy collected comments on the topic of who owns consumer energy data and who should get access to it. (To see FPF’s comments to the OSTP, click here.) Businesses are starting to wonder whether consumer privacy could limit the data they need to optimize demand response management or delay smart installations due to consumer push-back. They are right to be worried because the concerns are real.
How should the industry respond? Hiding from the issue or hoping regulators solve the problem for companies are not strategies likely to succeed when innovation that can allow both data use and consumer control is needed. We think that the potential benefits to the causes of energy conservation, green jobs, and the environment are too valuable to be allowed to fail.
Over the past year, FPF’s Smart Grid Privacy Working Group of businesses and advocates has worked extensively with the Gridwise Alliance to address these concerns. We held the first conference focused on Privacy and the Grid, with the White House, regulators, advocates and business participating. We wrote a white paper with Ontario Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian laying out how “privacy by design” can be a key strategy to addressing grid privacy development.
We have established SmartGridPrivacy.org as a clearing house for resources related to privacy and the smart grid. And today, we are part of the launch of the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative (SGCC), which is a new industry collaborative to help build consumer engagement in the rollout of the smart grid. SGCC includes consumer electronics and technology companies, retailers, consumer advocacy groups, and utilities that are dedicated to finding solutions that maximize the value of the grid for consumers.
The FCC Broadband Plan released last week calls for consumers to be able to access their power data so that “innovation” in the home can be unleashed to create new tools, new features and new advances that will encourage users to save energy. If privacy innovation is also part of the innovation agenda, we are sure that the data needed to power the grid can also serve to empower consumers.
