Current through Register Vol. 63, No. 9, September 1, 2024
(1) This rule applies only to customers with
usage less than one average megawatt (aMW) and those customers who elect to
opt-in as described in Section (11).
(2) An electric company must transfer to the
Administrator the following proprietary customer information for electric
company customers, if available.
(a) Customer
name;
(b) Service address
(including apartment/unit/suite number);
(c) Mailing address;
(d) In-service or activation date;
(e) Building type (for example,
multifamily);
(f) Business type
(identified using a Standard Industrial Classification (SIC code) or U.S.
Census Bureau NAICS code);
(g)
Initially, 18 months of the most recent historical usage data on a per-billing
month basis (total billed kilowatt hours and kW);
(h) Meter number and other point-of-delivery
identification numbers;
(i) Rate
schedule identifier for each customer account;
(j) Whether the customer is applying
self-direct credits against its energy efficiency and renewable public purpose
charge during each billing period;
(k) Information about any energy efficiency
program participation and type of space heat used by the customer;
(l) Updates for all of the usage data and
revisions to the underlying database information on a periodic basis under
subsection (6)(d) of this rule.
(m)
For unmetered accounts (for example, street lights, cellular towers, telephone
booths, and electric utility service buildings), electric companies must
transfer contracted kilowatt-hour consumption rather than actual billed
consumption.
(3) An
electric company may not transfer to the Administrator:
(a) Social security numbers,
(b) Billing and payment history,
(c) Credit information,
(d) Tax identification numbers,
(e) Driver license numbers,
(f) Life support information,
(g) Any medical information,
(h) Proprietary customer information
protected by the password provision required under OAR 860-021-0009(6),
or
(i) Proprietary customer
information for customers who have requested that their information not be
shared with third parties.
(4) The Administrator must transfer to the
electric company information, if available, regarding electric company customer
participation in electric efficiency programs where electric company funding
has been applied. At a minimum, the Administrator must provide:
(a) Service address (including apartment,
unit, or suite number);
(b) Meter
number and other point-of-delivery identification numbers;
(c) Information about electric efficiency
program participation, such as measures installed since the inception of the
Administrator's delivery of the efficiency programs; and
(d) Whether a customer has agreed to the
electric company's transfer of its proprietary customer information to the
Administrator as a result of its participation in an electric efficiency
program, and the term during which the Administrator has the right to see such
information.
(5) The
information provided by the Administrator to the electric company may be used
by the electric company solely for utility business, may not be shared with
third parties (except for those providing utility services for the electric
company under contracts requiring that the information be treated
confidentially and used only for providing such services for the electric
company), and if used for direct marketing, such use will be made only after
notice to and coordination with the Administrator.
(6) The manner by which the required
information is transferred will be governed by an Information Transfer
Agreement, which is executed and maintained by an electric company and the
Administrator. An Information Transfer Agreement must acknowledge the
Administrator's obligations to protect proprietary customer information per
this rule and the Administrator's policy or policies adopted under section 15
of this rule and must specify:
(a) The
database format to be used for the transfer of information;
(b) The billing period, payment arrangements,
and estimates of incremental costs incurred by an electric company or, for
information in section 4, by the Administrator, for the transfer of the
information;
(c) Timelines for
information transfer;
(d) Timelines
for updates for all of the data and revisions to the underlying database
information;
(e) That proprietary
customer information may be used by the Administrator to implement, administer,
and evaluate energy efficiency and renewable energy programs and may not be
used for telemarketing; and if the Administrator intends to use the information
for other direct marketing activities, the Administrator must notify the
electric company whose customers are likely to be affected and coordinate such
activities with the electric company;
(f) That the release of proprietary customer
information by the Administrator for any other purpose or to any party (other
than the electric company) who has not signed an agreement to treat such
information confidentially under subsection 15(b) of this rule may not be made
without consent of the customer; and
(g) Provisions for modification of the
Information Transfer Agreement.
(7) If the Administrator and an electric
company cannot agree on the terms and conditions of an Information Transfer
Agreement, the Commission may set the terms and conditions based upon input
from the Administrator and electric company.
(8) If the Administrator or an electric
company notifies the other that the information supplied by the other is
insufficient, incomplete, or not usable, the Administrator and electric company
will attempt to resolve the issue and if necessary, modify the Information
Transfer Agreement. If the Administrator and electric company cannot resolve
the issue, the electric company or the Administrator may promptly seek
Commission resolution of the dispute.
(9) An electric company must notify in
writing customers whose usage is 1 aMW or greater (over 1 aMW customer) of the
opportunity to opt in to the information transfer.
(a) Customers are considered an over 1 aMW
customer under criteria established by an electric company through its billing
process.
(b) For customers without
a usage history, usage may be estimated by an electric company for the purpose
of this rule and those customers projected to meet the 1aMW or greater
threshold must be included.
(c) An
electric company may choose to treat customers having multiple accounts over 1
aMW as a group for the purpose of this rule and may include or exclude those
accounts through one notification process.
(10) The notice required in section (9) of
this rule must, at a minimum:
(a) Identify and
explain the role of the Administrator,
(b) Identify the type of proprietary customer
information to be transferred by an electric company; and
(c) Describe the nature and use of the
proprietary customer information by the Administrator.
(11) An electric company must also provide
periodic opt-in notification for the over 1 aMW customers either as a part of a
standard customer contact discussion or in writing under the timelines in the
Information Transfer Agreement and set forth in section (6) of this rule.
(a) If the over 1 aMW customer does not opt
in to the information transfer, all accounts over 1 aMW must be excluded from
the information sharing process, and the electric company must transfer to the
Administrator only the name, service address, and whether customer is applying
self-direct credits against its energy efficiency and renewable public purpose
charge during each billing period, if known.
(b) The over 1 aMW customer may at any time
authorize transfer by the electric company to the Administrator of other
proprietary customer information described in section (2), in which case the
electric company must promptly transfer to the Administrator the specified
information and provide updates.
(c) If a customer opts in, it may
subsequently opt out by providing written notice to the electric company,
except that such notice is not effective as to information the customer
previously agreed may be transferred by the electric company to the
Administrator under the terms of an agreement under which the Administrator has
provided an incentive to the customer.
(d) The transfer of proprietary customer
information must be in accordance with the Information Transfer
Agreement.
(12) Each
electric company must send a notice to its customers prior to the
Administrator's receipt of their proprietary customer information:
(a) Informing them of the requirements of
these new rules;
(b) Explaining
that the purpose of transferring customer data to the Administrator is to help
ensure that the Administrator is better prepared to assist a customer who is
interested in participating in customer-funded efficiency and renewable energy
programs;
(c) Asking customers if
they wish to be on a "do not contact" list, in which case they will receive no
unsolicited contact from the Administrator, or its contractors; and
(d) For the over 1 aMW customer, explaining
that absent the customer's consent, only the limited customer information
listed in subsection (11)(a) of this rule will be transferred to the
Administrator.
(13) If an
electric company receives an unsolicited request from a customer to not provide
their proprietary customer information to the Administrator, or if the customer
has previously opted out of transfer of their proprietary information prior to
the implementation of this rule, and the customer has not agreed otherwise with
the Administrator, the electric company must honor that request unless the
electric company subsequently receives written customer consent to transfer the
proprietary customer information to the Administrator. A customer's request to
opt out in response to a notice from the electric company explaining the
customer's rights is also considered an unsolicited request for the purpose of
this section.
(14) When an electric
company has provided proprietary customer information to the Administrator
under this rule, an electric company may not be charged with at-fault
complaints filed with the Commission's Consumer Services Division with respect
to the provision of proprietary customer information if the Commission finds
that the electric company did not violate its tariff, Oregon Administrative
Rules, Oregon Revised Statutes, or a Commission Order.
(15) Before an electric company provides the
Administrator with proprietary customer information under this rule, the
Administrator must:
(a) Develop and adopt in
an open process a policy or policies ensuring that the confidentiality of the
proprietary customer information it receives from an electric company is
protected in a manner that meets the requirements of all federal, state, and
local laws regarding protection for this type of information;
(b) Agree to require its employees and
contractors to commit to specific non-disclosure requirements in order to gain
access to proprietary customer information which, at a minimum, require that
the proprietary customer information:
(A) Be
used only for the purposes of a particular project or contract;
(B) Be shared with a subcontractor only under
similar conditions and requirements and only upon approval of the
Administrator; and
(C) Be returned
to the Administrator or destroyed at the completion of the project or
termination of the contract;
(c) Agree to honor any
do-not-contact-customer requests; and
(d) Establish a process by which customers
may require the Administrator not to use the proprietary customer information
to make unsolicited contact with the customer, including, but not limited to,
responding to the electric company notice in section (12) of this
rule.
Stat. Auth.: ORS 183, 756 & 757
Stats. Implemented: ORS
756.040 &
757.600 -
757.667
