Formal partnership indicates support for safe use and sharing of consumers’ energy data

Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC) and Green Button Alliance (GBA) are the first organizations to join the DataGuard Energy Data Partnership Program. The DataGuard Partnership Program offers a formalized way for member-based organizations to indicate their support for the DataGuard consumer privacy concepts and principles.

“With the recent turmoil around the unauthorized use of personal information, SECC believes consumers will be reassured by the DataGuard mark that communicates that energy companies are treating their personal energy usage data confidentially,” said Patty Durand, President & CEO, SECC.

DataGuard is a voluntary program that provides high-level principles around the treatment, retention and disposal of customer data. While the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity initiated the effort, the concepts and principles were created by industry stakeholders to provide a framework for establishing practices that safeguard the access, use and sharing of customer data, which are described in the Voluntary Code of Conduct (VCC).

The VCC is particularly useful for emerging vendors to encourage customers to authorize utilities to make customer data available for analysis and automation and to assure customers that the vendor will treat their personal data responsibly.

“The Green Button Alliance leads the development of the Green Button utility-data exchange standard, which ensures utility customer-data privacy and the secure sharing of customer data,” said Jeremy J. Roberts, Executive Director, GBA. “The GBA’s partnership in the DataGuard program aligns with our ongoing commitment to responsible data access and customer privacy.”

The SECC and the GBA will co-host a webinar about the DataGuard Partnership Program. Registration will open soon here. Other groups with an interest in customer privacy are invited to join the program or learn more at www.dataguardprivacyprogram.org/industry/.

Green Button Alliance is a nonprofit fostering the development, testing and compliance, and widespread adoption of the global Green Button electricity-, natural gas- and water-usage data-sharing standard.