Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 5TH - 11TH JULY 2019 | 29 Customers Data handling must be based on principles 'Sector-wide standards would help rebuild trust.' Opinion Edward Williams, Gemserv M odern technology allows organisations to gather valuable information through connected devices about customers' behaviour and preferences, such as their location, size of household and household income. This data can then be analysed, understood and applied with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics. However, the general public are becoming increas- ingly suspicious of how this data is being used, and the consumers increasingly judge an organisation's ethical values on how it manages data on their behalf. For example, Yahoo has been the victim of the biggest data breach in history, involving the details of all three billion user accounts, and in 2018, Marriott International announced a cyber attack had stolen data from 500 mil- lion customers. The energy industry is no exception and has a duty of care to customers as it transitions from sharing non- personal data to non-transactional data that can be used to identify people's individual habits. The industry has historically recognised the value of transactional data in helping organisations make informed decisions, but it is now turning its attention to the benefits of sharing non-transactional data between organisations, and in publishing this information to promote openness and innovation. But concerns around privacy and ethics will only mount if we fail to unlock the value held in consumer data in a safe and transpar- ent manner from the get-go. There are many initiatives addressing these concerns, primarily the government and Ofgem's Energy Data Taskforce, which will report on a list of the key data held by industry, Ofgem and government, their main attrib- utes and who would benefit from accessing them, which should be made public, and how. It is focused on how we can improve flows of data to optimise the overall operation of the energy system. And later this year a manager will be assigned to the retail energy code, a new dual fuel code created by Ofgem to replace existing retail codes and govern the central switching service. It is important that this manager is able to influence the wider energy industry around how information should be managed, shared and opened to derive maximum value. There is a lot depending on the industry getting this right, because there is tremendous value in the informa- tion held across the energy industry, and data-driven initiatives are key to digitalisation. But it needs to fundamentally change how it uses data that can be used to identify people, and address the challenges around data's governance, security and ethical use. We must also learn lessons from the mistakes that have plagued other sectors, such as Huawei, Facebook and Whatsapp, to ensure these mistakes are not repeated. This requires a consistent approach to manag- ing and sharing data and using it as widely as possible. Failure to do so, in the worst cases, can lead to custom- ers becoming suspicious of an organisation's objectives, and ultimately rejecting them. An industry that operates from a common set of principles, is open and shares data, will bring huge long- term cost benefits for industry participants, as well as consumers, while the failure to implement strong infor- mation principles will lead to a market that is stagnant, siloed and struggles to provide true efficiency or benefit to its customers. However, to date there has been no single set of com- mon data principles that can be used by the broad range of stakeholders in the energy sector, and governance is fragmented across the industry. In response, Gemserv has put together nine information principles that we believe should be rolled out across the industry to help guide organisations to be consistent in ensuring data is collected, handled and used correctly and ethically. The principles include: information is an asset; information is managed; information is governed; and information is published. These principles help address the challenges around the governance, security and ethical use of open data, while promoting innovation through data-driven initia- tives at the same time. Signing up and adhering to these principles will help the industry ensure that consumers' concerns are being taken seriously, while also promoting innovation to get the maximum value from data. Our principles build on work across the public and private sectors and are informed by our belief that infor- mation should be accessible, shareable, reusable, used ethically and managed properly. We must ensure that all industry information is properly managed and there are controls in place to ensure its quality, integrity and availability. Ownership is central to this and has been a controversial topic in the energy sector. The principles also tackle openness and sharing, which challenges much of our current understanding of information ownership and commer- cial interests. To keep consumers' trust, energy companies need to adopt sector-wide principles without delay to improve the energy market, and guide it towards managing and using data in the most effective way. Edward Williams, head of digital transformation, Gemserv

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