BILL NUMBER: SB 674 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Senator Padilla
FEBRUARY 18, 2011
An act to amend Sections 739.5 and 8380 of, and to repeal Section
709.7 of, the Public Utilities Code, relating to public utilities.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 674, as introduced, Padilla. Telecommunications:
master-metering: data security.
(1) The California High Speed Internet Access Act of 1999, among
other things, requires the Public Utilities Commission to monitor and
participate in a specified proceeding of the Federal Communications
Commission addressing whether to require incumbent local exchange
carriers, as defined, to permit interconnection by competitive data
local exchange carriers, as defined, at any technically feasible
point, to permit those competitive local exchange carriers to provide
high bandwidth data services over telephone lines with voice
services provided by incumbent local exchange carriers.
This bill would repeal the California High Speed Internet Access
Act of 1999.
(2) Under existing law, the commission has regulatory authority
over public utilities, including electrical corporations. An
electrical corporation is defined as including every corporation or
person owning, controlling, operating, or managing any electric plant
for compensation within this state, except where electricity is
generated on or distributed by the producer through private property
solely for its own use or the use of its tenants and not for sale or
transmission to others. Existing law requires that, when gas or
electric service is provided by a master-meter customer to users who
are tenants of a mobilehome park, apartment building, or similar
residential complex, the master-meter customer charge each user a
rate not to exceed the rate that would be applicable if the user were
receiving gas or electricity, or both, directly from the gas or
electrical corporation. Existing law creates further requirements for
master-meter customers and for the corporations that provide service
to them, including a requirement that a master-meter customer of a
gas or electrical corporation who receives any rebate from the
corporation to distribute to, or credit to the account of, each
current user served by the master-meter customer a specified portion
of the rebate.
This bill would exclude from the definition of "rebate" the award
of a monetary incentive under the California Solar Initiative for a
solar energy system that provides electrical generation for the
common area of a mobilehome park.
(3) Existing law prohibits an electrical corporation or gas
corporation from sharing, disclosing, or otherwise making accessible
to any 3rd party a customer's electrical or gas consumption data, as
defined, except as specified. Existing law provides that, if the
electrical corporation or gas corporation contracts with a 3rd party
for a service that allows a customer to monitor his or her
electricity or gas usage, and the 3rd party uses the data for a
secondary commercial purpose, the contract between the electrical or
gas corporation and the 3rd party shall provide that the 3rd party
prominently discloses that secondary commercial purpose to the
customer. Existing law provides that nothing precludes an electrical
corporation or gas corporation from disclosing a customer's
electrical or gas consumption data to a 3rd party for system, grid,
or operational needs, or the implementation of demand response,
energy management, or energy efficiency programs, if the utility
contract with the 3rd party, among other provisions relating to data
security, prohibits the use of the data for a secondary commercial
purpose not related to the primary purpose of the contract without
the customer's consent.
This bill would require those contracts to require customer
consent prior to the use of the data.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 709.7 of the Public Utilities Code is repealed.
709.7. (a) This section shall be known and may be cited as the
California High Speed Internet Access Act of 1999.
(b) The Public Utilities Commission shall monitor and participate
in the proceeding of the Federal Communications Commission, entitled
"In the Matters of Deployment of Wireline Services Offering Advanced
Telecommunications Capability," CC Docket No. 98-147, adopted March
18, 1999, addressing whether to require incumbent local exchange
carriers to permit interconnection by competitive data local exchange
carriers at any technically feasible point to permit those
competitive local exchange carriers to provide high bandwidth data
services over telephone lines with voice services provided by
incumbent local exchange carriers.
(c) If the Federal Communications Commission adopts an order on or
before January 1, 2000, with regard to the proceeding described in
subdivision (b), the Public Utilities Commission shall comply with,
and implement, in a manner that the Public Utilities Commission
determines to be appropriate, that order, as it pertains to loop
access, pricing, and cost allocation in the provision of broadband
data services over telephone lines provided by an incumbent local
exchange carrier, consistent with state and federal law, within 90
days from the date that the rules adopted by that order are published
in the Federal Register. If the Federal Communications Commission
does not adopt an order on or before January 1, 2000, with regard to
the proceeding described in subdivision (b), the Public Utilities
Commission shall expeditiously examine the technical, operational,
economic, and policy implications of interconnection as described in
subdivision (b) and, if the Public Utilities Commission determines it
to be appropriate, adopt rules to require incumbent local exchange
carriers in this state to permit competitive local exchange carriers
to provide high bandwidth data services over telephone lines with
voice services provided by incumbent local exchange carriers.
(d) As used in this section, the following terms have the
following meanings:
(1) "Incumbent local exchange carrier" has the same meaning as
that term is defined in Section 251(h)(1) of Title 47 of the United
States Code.
(2) "Competitive local exchange carrier" has the same meaning as
the term "local exchange carrier," as defined in Section 153(26) of
Title 47 of the United States Code.
SEC. 2. Section 739.5 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to
read:
739.5. (a) The commission shall require that, whenever gas or
electric service, or both, is provided by a master-meter customer to
users who are tenants of a mobilehome park, apartment building, or
similar residential complex, the master-meter customer shall charge
each user of the service at the same rate that would be applicable if
the user were receiving gas or electricity, or both, directly from
the gas or electrical corporation. The commission shall require the
corporation furnishing service to the master-meter customer to
establish uniform rates for master-meter service at a level that will
provide a sufficient differential to cover the reasonable average
costs to master-meter customers of providing submeter service, except
that these costs shall not exceed the average cost that the
corporation would have incurred in providing comparable services
directly to the users of the service.
(b) Every master-meter customer of a gas or electrical corporation
subject to subdivision (a) who, on or after January 1, 1978,
receives any rebate from the corporation shall distribute to, or
credit to the account of, each current user served by the
master-meter customer that portion of the rebate which the amount of
gas or electricity, or both, consumed by the user during the last
billing period bears to the total amount furnished by the corporation
to the master-meter customer during that period.
(c) An electrical or gas corporation furnishing service to a
master-meter customer shall furnish to each user of the service
within a submetered system every public safety customer service which
it provides beyond the meter to its other residential customers. The
corporation shall furnish a list of those services to the
master-meter customer who shall post the list in a conspicuous place
accessible to all users. Every corporation shall provide these public
safety customer services to each user of electrical or gas service
under a submetered system without additional charge unless the
corporation has included the average cost of these services in the
rate differential provided to the master-meter customer on January 1,
1984, in which case the commission shall deduct the average cost of
providing these public safety customer services when approving rate
differentials for master-meter customers.
(d) Every master-meter customer is responsible for maintenance and
repair of its submeter facilities beyond the master-meter, and
nothing in this section requires an electrical or gas corporation to
make repairs to or perform maintenance on the submeter system.
(e) Every master-meter customer shall provide an itemized billing
of charges for electricity or gas, or both, to each individual user
generally in accordance with the form and content of bills of the
corporation to its residential customers, including, but not limited
to, the opening and closing readings for the meter, and the
identification of all rates and quantities attributable to each block
in the applicable rate structure. The master-meter customer shall
also post, in a conspicuous place, the applicable prevailing
residential gas or electrical rate schedule, as published by the
corporation.
(f) The commission shall require that every electrical and gas
corporation shall notify each master-meter customer of its
responsibilities to its users under this section.
(g) The commission shall accept and respond to complaints
concerning the requirements of this section through the consumer
affairs branch, in addition to any other staff that the commission
deems necessary to assist the complainant. In responding to the
complaint, the commission shall consider the role that the office of
the county sealer in the complainant's county of residence may have
in helping to resolve the complaint and, where appropriate,
coordinate with that office.
(h) Notwithstanding any other provision of law or decision of the
commission, the commission shall not deny eligibility for the
California Alternative Rates for Energy (CARE) program, created
pursuant to Section 739.1, for a residential user of gas or electric
service who is a submetered resident or tenant served by a
master-meter customer on the basis that some residential units in the
master-meter customer's mobilehome park, apartment building, or
similar residential complex do not receive gas or electric service
through a submetered system.
(i) For purposes of this section, "rebate" does not include the
award of a monetary incentive under the California Solar Initiative
adopted by the Public Utilities Commission in Decision 05-12-044 and
Decision 06-01-024, as modified by Article 1 (commencing with Section
2851) of Chapter 9 of Part 2, for a solar energy system that
provides electrical generation for the common area of a mobilehome
park.
SEC. 3. Section 8380 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to
read:
8380. (a) For purposes of this section, "electrical or gas
consumption data" means data about a customer's electrical or natural
gas usage that is made available as part of an advanced metering
infrastructure, and includes the name, account number, or residence
of the customer.
(b) (1) An electrical corporation or gas corporation shall not
share, disclose, or otherwise make accessible to any third party a
customer's electrical or gas consumption data, except as provided in
subdivision (e) or upon the consent of the customer.
(2) An electrical corporation or gas corporation shall not sell a
customer's electrical or gas consumption data or any other personally
identifiable information for any purpose.
(3) The electrical corporation or gas corporation or its
contractors shall not provide an incentive or discount to the
customer for accessing the customer's electrical or gas consumption
data without the prior consent of the customer.
(4) An electrical or gas corporation that utilizes an advanced
metering infrastructure that allows a customer to access the customer'
s electrical and gas consumption data shall ensure that the customer
has an option to access that data without being required to agree to
the sharing of his or her personally identifiable information,
including electrical or gas consumption data, with a third party.
(c) If an electrical corporation or gas corporation contracts with
a third party for a service that allows a customer to monitor his or
her electricity or gas usage, and that third party uses the data for
a secondary commercial purpose, the contract between the electrical
corporation or gas corporation and the third party shall provide that
the third party prominently discloses that secondary commercial
purpose to the customer and secures the customer's consent prior
to the use of the data .
(d) An electrical corporation or gas corporation shall use
reasonable security procedures and practices to protect a customer's
unencrypted electrical or gas consumption data from unauthorized
access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure.
(e) (1) Nothing in this This
section shall not preclude an electrical corporation or
gas corporation from using customer aggregate electrical or gas
consumption data for analysis, reporting, or program management if
all information has been removed regarding the individual identity of
a customer.
(2) Nothing in this section shall not
preclude an electrical corporation or gas corporation from
disclosing a customer's electrical or gas consumption data to a third
party for system, grid, or operational needs, or the implementation
of demand response, energy management, or energy efficiency programs,
provided that, for contracts entered into after January 1, 2011, the
utility has required by contract that the third party implement and
maintain reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to
the nature of the information, to protect the personal information
from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or
disclosure, and prohibits the use of the data for a secondary
commercial purpose not related to the primary purpose of the contract
without the customer's prior consent.
(3) Nothing in this This section
shall not preclude an electrical corporation or gas
corporation from disclosing electrical or gas consumption data as
required or permitted under state or federal law or by an order of
the commission.
(f) If a customer chooses to disclose his or her electrical or gas
consumption data to a third party that is unaffiliated with, and has
no other business relationship with, the electrical or gas
corporation, the electrical or gas corporation shall not be
responsible for the security of that data, or its use or misuse.