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Utility Week 4th October 2019

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UTILITY WEEK | 4TH - 10TH OCTOBER 2019 | 17 Vulnerable customers consumers' interests, while enabling stakeholders proportionate access to data to facilitate innovation. It has been implemented through a range of regulatory requirements, including the smart energy code (SEC), energy supply licence conditions and the energy distribution standard licence conditions. e requirements under the framework can be broadly split into the following categories. E n e r g y s u p p l i e r a c c e s s t o d o m e s t i c c o n s u m p t i o n d a t a Energy suppliers are permitted to access monthly and daily energy consumption data from domestic customers in order to fulfil their regulated duties, for example, to provide the consumer with accurate bills or statements. Energy suppliers can only access energy consumption data that is more than daily, such as half-hourly data, providing they have the consumer's consent to do so. As part of this process, the energy supplier must explain to the consumer how their data will be used and that they have a right to withdraw consent. e government has claimed that the rules are designed to ensure that consumers are able to make informed choices about sharing their detailed consumption data. e onus is on the energy supplier to clearly explain why they wish to access consumer data and to incentivise the consumer into sharing their data by offering products and services in return. E n e r g y n e t w o r k o p e r a t o r a c c e s s t o d o m e s t i c c o n s u m p t i o n d a t a Energy network operators are under more stringent requirements than suppliers. Under the framework, they are only able to obtain consumption data relating to periods of less than one month if they have obtained the consumer's consent and have implemented Ofgem- approved procedures to ensure the data can no longer be associated with a customer at a particular premises. e exceptions to this are more limited than for energy suppliers and include where they have reasonable grounds to suspect theft. T h i r d p a r t y a c c e s s t o c o n s u m p t i o n d a t a e ability for consumers to share their data with unlicensed third parties is widely regarded as the biggest potential for innovation, permitting third parties to develop new products to help consumers manage their energy use. Under the GDPR, individuals have a right to data portability, which allows individuals to obtain and reuse their own personal data for different purposes across different services. is helps individuals take advantage of applications and services that help find a better deal or to develop a better understanding of their energy consumption habits. To further support this, the government established the smart energy code, which enables third parties to access energy consumption data directly from smart meters subject to a number of privacy safeguards, including acquiring the consumer's consent. Alex Underwood and Jeremy Godley are lawyers at Osborne Clarke In advance of a Priority Service Register data-sharing programme being rolled out nationwide by April 2020, what have United Utilities and Electricity North West learnt from piloting the scheme, asks Robyn Wilson. S h a r e d l e a r n i n g I t's been two years since the water and energy industries started to publicly explore the benefits of sharing data on vulnerable customers as a way to improve services. Set against the recent backdrop of big data, regulators Ofgem, Ofwat and the UK Regulators' Network published a report in October 2017 calling for greater cross-sector collaboration and the sharing of non-financial vulnerability data through the Priority Service Register (PSR). e PSR is a free service provided by suppliers, which vulnerable customers can sign up to receive various services such as advance notice of planned power cuts. Up until this point, each utility held its own register. e report prompted a series of pilots to get under way between major companies in energy, water and third-party industries to see how this tie-up would work in practice, with an update report published by the regulators the following year. is highlighted a number of PSR data-sharing pilots, including United Utilities and Electricity North West, who explain about what they've learnt from the pilot. How did the pilot work in practice? Running over a 14-week period between February and April 2018, the companies conducted a two-way data-sharing pilot in which they gained explicit consent from their mutual customers to share their PSR data. Explaining the mechanics of the pilot, ENW's customer director, Stephanie Trubshaw says: "We started off making sure we did everything simply, so we didn't worry about the existing data we had – we just dealt with new customers. So, when we or United Utilities were registering a new customer, we would offer to register them on both [PSRs]."

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