By Patty Durand, executive director, SGCC
The recent revelations about the National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance of domestic communications made me cringe. While too many unanswered questions remain to draw firm conclusions, the impression that a government agency is monitoring Americans’ cell phone, email and Internet traffic could play right into the hands of smart meter critics. That would be a leap in logic, in my view. And I’ll tell you why. But these developments also underscore why the engagement process resulting from our Smart Grid Consumer Pulse and Segmentation study is deserving of even greater support. I’ll share my thinking on that point as well.
The mass monitoring of electronic communications to find patterns of potential terrorist activity appears to have little relevance to personally identifiable, home energy use data. Yet the topic is worth exploring further, if only to better understand how smart meter data is collected, protected and analyzed by utilities. However, legal and well-established security-related concerns trump interest in anyone’s personal home energy use.
The power sector already is concerned with hackers
seeking to disrupt the grid as well as the reliability of the grid’s aging
components. Every U.S. industry has
similar concerns with protecting their own assets and customers. For the power
sector, the collection and analysis of home energy use in aggregate – i.e.,
patterns – helps manage the safety, security and efficiency of the grid. It would
not be rational to forego that value out of fear that individual data would be
misused.
Americans are already aware that life in a digital
world involves trade-offs between convenience and privacy. That calls for
discussion and debate of those trade-offs and might need to include whether the
trade-offs apply to smart metering data. Living in a digital world and
understanding and balancing these trade-offs would seem to require more robust
engagement among the relevant parties, rather than indulge in fear and a search
for bogeymen.
While the constitutionality and legality of the NSA
surveillance needs to be openly reviewed, let’s take a deep breath and consider
whether this is a game changer for power utilities and their efforts to run the
grid more efficiently and with a greater degree of environmental
responsibility.
Smart meters are being implemented to provide:
Smart meters are being implemented to provide:
- more accurate billing than aging electro-mechanical meters,
- end-of-line sensors to provide insight into outages,
- dynamic pricing that will reflect the true cost of electricity provision on 24-hour and seasonal bases,
- data for the homeowner to better understand and manage their electricity usage.
Placed into context, the use of smart meters to enable more sophisticated
energy use by the consumer and more efficient, sustainable grid-related
practices by utilities makes at least as much sense as other technologies where
the trade-offs between value and privacy are less clear.
That said, utilities and public utility commissions
remain responsible for robust data privacy practices and policies with
sufficient transparency to allay their customers’ concerns. The movement toward
offering opt-out policies, with corresponding fees, is one step in that
direction. An iron-clad policy that any personally identifiable information
derived from smart metering is the sole property of the account holder is
another step, which is already widely embraced.
We’re really at the beginning of important conversations about how to live in a digital world while retaining a sense of privacy. Let’s recognize that’s where we are. The power industry and its customers have yet to grasp, fully explore and, perhaps, resolve related issues involving smart meters. The moment is ripe for engagement on the actual issues, to ensure safeguards and maintain confidence in the institutions that enable our digital lives, particularly the power sector that drives so much of modern life. News of the NSA’s domestic surveillance of electronic communications should drive that engagement rather than plunge us into a murky world of pervasive paranoia. Many people have worked hard to assure consumers that their energy data is safe as always. I want to avoid this news raising new concerns and more unfounded attacks by critics, but would welcome informed debate and transparency. I hope that happens.
We’re really at the beginning of important conversations about how to live in a digital world while retaining a sense of privacy. Let’s recognize that’s where we are. The power industry and its customers have yet to grasp, fully explore and, perhaps, resolve related issues involving smart meters. The moment is ripe for engagement on the actual issues, to ensure safeguards and maintain confidence in the institutions that enable our digital lives, particularly the power sector that drives so much of modern life. News of the NSA’s domestic surveillance of electronic communications should drive that engagement rather than plunge us into a murky world of pervasive paranoia. Many people have worked hard to assure consumers that their energy data is safe as always. I want to avoid this news raising new concerns and more unfounded attacks by critics, but would welcome informed debate and transparency. I hope that happens.
On a related note, the SGCC will soon unveil the
results of several major initiatives that serve consumers and their engagement
with the power sector. We have a new
fact sheet called Becoming a Smart Power
User; we are launching a brand-new consumer-facing website which leverages
our segmentation and educational research about how to engage and inform
consumers; we are beginning two new pieces of research – an update on Smart Grid Consumer Pulse and Segmentation
study (Wave 4) and one on the
economic and environmental benefits of smart grid technology investments. And
much more. Please stay tuned.