CHAPTER 399
An Act to require the State Corporation Commission to convene a stakeholder group on consumer data protection issues.
[H 2332]
Approved March 14, 2019
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. § 1. That by September 1, 2019, the State Corporation Commission (Commission) shall convene and facilitate a Data Access Stakeholder group to review and consider the following subjects:
1. Customer privacy considerations, including the establishment of the definitions for, and the protection of, personally identifiable information and energy usage data resulting from the deployment of advanced metering infrastructure by the electric utility;
2. The impact of data sharing on the physical and cybersecurity of utility infrastructure and systems;
3. Aggregating anonymized energy usage data;
4. The format for data access that is customer-friendly and computer-friendly;
5. Ensuring that standards and practices for access to data adhere to nationally recognized standards and best practices;
6. Opt-in/opt-out conditions for access to customers' utility usage data by the electric utility, a contracted agent, and a third party;
7. Current data access and sharing provisions resulting from the deployment of advanced metering infrastructure implemented by other utilities in the Commonwealth;
8. Costs of and cost recovery mechanisms for changes to electric utility infrastructure needed to implement regulations; and
9. Notice requirements by utilities to customers regarding the types of energy usage data being collected, how that data is used by the utility to provide the utility service, how customers can access their data, how the customer can manage and direct what specific information from their energy usage data can be shared, with whom this data can be shared outside the utility, and when the data can be shared.
The Data Access Stakeholder group shall conclude its work no later than April 1, 2020, and the Commission shall report the recommendations of the Data Access Stakeholder group to the General Assembly.