SENATE ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 223

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  OCTOBER 10, 2024

      The Senate Environment and Energy Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 223.

      This bill establishes certain principles and requirements concerning the collection and use of customer energy usage data (CEUD), as defined in the bill, that are collected through advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), commonly referred to as “smart meters.”

      This bill establishes that a customer, as defined in the bill, is to have full ownership and complete control of their CEUD.  An electric public utility is to only disclose a customer’s CEUD to an authorized third party, except as provided in the bill.  An electric public utility is to use CEUD only to provide electric public utility service in the ordinary course of business and according to law.

      The bill requires that, within 90 calendar days from the effective date of this bill, the board is to establish Statewide standardized privacy requirements that each electric public utility is to be required to adopt as part of the data access plan (plan) required by the bill.  The standardized privacy requirements are to include provisions:

      1)   committing the electric public utility to protect CEUD from unauthorized disclosure or destruction by using reasonable security procedures and practices;

      2)   requiring each electric public utility, in the event of an unauthorized disclosure of CEUD, to notify all customers, the BPU, and, if appropriate, law enforcement of the event; and

      3) any other CEUD privacy and transparency requirements the BPU deems appropriate.

      This bill provides that, within 90 calendar days of the issuance of the Statewide standardized privacy requirements required by the bill, the BPU is to require each electric public utility to file with the BPU, in a form and manner to be determined by the BPU, the plan. The plan requires each electric public utility to adopt CEUD disclosure, access, and privacy, and billing reconciliation procedures.  Each plan is required to ensure:

      1)   customers have fair, real-time or near real-time access to their ongoing and historical CEUD, made available on a digital platform no later than 24 hours after the CEUD was collected by the AMI, in a form that allows for data portability;

      2)   customers are provided with sufficient information, including, but not limited to, the names of third parties and the intended use of CEUD by third parties, to provide informed consent in writing authorizing a third party to receive the customer’s CEUD, except that the customer shall have the ability deny consent and to revoke informed consent at any time;

      3)   an electric public utility contractually requires authorized third parties that have access to CEUD to abide by the provisions of this section;

      4)   the use of CEUD by an electric public utility or authorized third party shall assist the State in achieving the clean energy goals provided in the Energy Master Plan;

      5)   the use of CEUD by an electric public utility improves the reliability of electricity distribution by increasing system and customer transparency, improving efficiency of distribution system planning, and accelerating outage recovery;

      6)   an electric public utility collects five-minute interval usage data that shall be made available to the customer pursuant to the bill;

      7)   AMI and CEUD shall improve the efficiency of rates charged to customers, including rate design and billing accuracy; and

      8)   any other information the BPU deems appropriate.

      The bill provides that the BPU is to have 30 calendar days to review and approve a plan submitted by an electric public utility.  A plan is to be deemed approved by the BPU if the BPU fails to approve or reject a plan within 30 calendar days of the date of submission.

      The provisions of the bill are not to preclude an electric public utility from:

      1)   using CEUD for analysis, reporting, or program management if it is anonymized data; or

      2)   disclosing CEUD as required or permitted under State or federal law or by an order of the BPU.

      The bill is not to apply if a customer independently chooses to disclose the customer’s CEUD to a third party that is not subject to the provisions of the bill.

      This bill was pre-filed for introduction in the 2024-2025 session pending technical review.  As reported, the bill includes the changes required by technical review, which has been performed.