Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 90 / Tuesday, May 11, 2010 / Notices 26203 

1 e.g. municipalities, public power entities and 

electric cooperatives. 

2A smart meter is a good example of an enabling 

Smart Grid technology that can empower both 

utilities and consumers to extract value from twoway communications and real-time access to usage 

data. Smart meters play an important role in the 

success of the Smart Grid because they can generate 

an array of useful data including historical energy 

consumption data, real-time data, and price-anddemand-response data. 3 Dep’t of Energy, What the Smart Grid Means to 

Americans, 2, 23 (Aug. 31, 2009), available at 

http://www.oe.energy.gov/DocumentsandMedia/ 

ConsumerAdvocates.pdf. 

4Fed. Commc’n Comm’n, Connecting America: 

The National Broadband Plan, http:// 

www.broadband.gov/plan/ (last visited Apr. 26, 

2010). 

5 Id. 

Emery LLP, 600 13th Street, NW., 

Washington, DC 20005. A final decision 

will be made on this application after 

the environmental impacts have been 

evaluated pursuant to the National 

Environmental Policy Act of 1969, and 

a determination is made by DOE that the 

proposed action will not adversely 

impact on the reliability of the U.S. 

electric power supply system. 

Copies of this application will be 

made available, upon request, for public 

inspection and copying at the address 

provided above, by accessing the 

program Web site at http:// 

www.oe.energy.gov/ 

permits_pending.htm, or by e-mailing 

Odessa Hopkins at 

Odessa.hopkins@hq.doe.gov. 

Issued in Washington, DC, on May 5, 2010. 

Anthony J. Como, 

Director, Permitting and Siting, Office of 

Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability. 

[FR Doc. 2010–11131 Filed 5–10–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6450–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Implementing the National Broadband 

Plan by Empowering Consumers and 

the Smart Grid: Data Access, Third 

Party Use, and Privacy 

AGENCY: Department of Energy. 

ACTION: Request for Information. 

SUMMARY: The Department of Energy 

(DOE) is seeking comments and 

information from interested parties to 

assist DOE in understanding current and 

potential practices and policies for the 

states and other entities 1 to empower 

consumers (and perhaps others) through 

access to detailed energy information in 

electronic form—including real-time 

information from smart meters, 

historical consumption data, and 

pricing and billing information. This 

request for information (RFI) asks 

interested parties, including industry, 

consumer groups and State 

governments, to report on State efforts 

to enact Smart Grid privacy and data 

collection policies. This RFI also seeks 

input regarding individual utility 

practices and policies regarding data 

access and collection; third party access 

to detailed energy information; and the 

role of the consumer in balancing the 

benefits of access and privacy. Finally, 

this RFI seeks comment on what 

policies and practices should guide 

policymakers in determining who can 

access consumers’ energy information 

and under what conditions. 

DATES: Comments must be postmarked 

by no later than July 12, 2010. Reply 

comments must be postmarked by no 

later than July 26, 2010. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, 

identified by ‘‘NBP RFI: Data Access,’’ by 

any of the following methods: 

Federal eRulemaking Portal: http:// 

www.regulations.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments. 

E-mail: broadband@hq.doe.gov. 

Include ‘‘NBP RFI: Data Access’’ in the 

subject line of the message. 

Mail: U.S. Department of Energy, 

Office of the General Counsel, 1000 

Independence Avenue, SW., Room 

6A245, Washington, DC 20585. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Maureen C. McLaughlin, Senior Legal 

Advisor to the General Counsel (202) 

586–5281; broadband@hq.doe.gov. 

For Media Inquires you may contact 

Jen Stutsman at 202–586–4940. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Introduction 

The promise 2 of the Smart Grid is 

enormous and includes improved 

reliability, flexibility and power quality, 

reduction in peak demand, reduction in 

transmission congestion costs, 

environmental benefits gained by 

increased asset utilization, increased 

security, increased energy efficiency 

and increased durability and ease of 

repair in response to attacks or natural 

disasters. But the Smart Grid also 

presents new challenges. In particular, 

many of its benefits could be reduced or 

delayed and avoidable harms caused 

unless the Smart Grid adequately 

respects consumers’ reasonable—and 

often widely differing—expectations of 

privacy, expectations that could be 

compromised if detailed household 

energy consumption data is made too 

readily available, too inaccessible, or 

incorrectly anonymized. The Smart Grid 

is also likely to create a far more 

interactive relationship between utilities 

and consumers that will raise new 

questions about how to ensure that 

detailed energy data is properly 

collected, reported, managed, shared 

and disclosed in ways that are both 

lawful and adequately transparent to 

consumers.3

This RFI seeks to collect information 

and open a dialogue about the 

challenges inherent in empowering 

consumers, utilities, and third parties to 

realize the many potential benefits of 

the Smart Grid, while protecting 

reasonable consumer expectations of 

privacy and security, and ease-of-access 

and providing the flexibility to manage 

both. 

In the context of the Smart Grid, 

privacy and access are not so much 

conflicting goals as they are 

complementary goods: the value of the 

Smart Grid to consumers, utilities, and 

third parties depends upon its capacity 

to encourage and accommodate 

unpredicted innovations while making 

usage data reasonably available to those 

who should have it and respecting 

consumers’ reasonable interests in 

choosing how to balance the benefits of 

access against the protection of personal 

privacy and security. Only solutions 

that accommodate all of these critical 

values will maximize the value of the 

Smart Grid to consumers, utilities, 

third-party service providers and 

innovators, and State and Federal 

governments. 

Background 

In early 2009, Congress directed the 

Federal Communications Commission 

(‘‘FCC’’) to create the recently released 

National Broadband Plan (‘‘NBP’’).4 As 

Congress instructed, the NBP makes 

recommendations to various 

government entities, including 

Executive Branch agencies like DOE. In 

particular, the NBP recommended that 

DOE should consider consumer data 

accessibility policies when evaluating 

Smart Grid grant applications, report on 

states’ progress toward enacting 

consumer data accessibility policies, 

and develop best-practices guidance for 

the states.5 More generally, the NBP’s 

recommendations seek to modernize the 

electric grid with broadband by 

increasing reliability and efficiency, to 

unleash energy innovation in homes 

and buildings by making energy-usage 

data readily accessible to consumers, 

and to improve the energy efficiency 

and environmental impact of the 

Information and Communication 

Technologies (ICT) sector by integrating 

broadband into the developing Smart 

Grid. 

These new recommendations 

recognize and build upon DOE’s years 


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26204 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 90 / Tuesday, May 11, 2010 / Notices 

6 42 U.S.C. 17381 (2010). 

7 Id. Section 17383. 8 Id. Section 17385(a). 9 Id. 

10Smart Grid Policy Statement, 128 F.E.R.C. ¶ 

61,337, at 61,060–359 (Jul. 16, 2009). 

11Cyber Security: Before the S. Comm. On Energy 

and Natural Resources, 111th Cong. 1 (May 7, 2009) 

(Statement of Patricia Hoffman, Acting Assistant 

Secretary, Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy 

Reliability, U.S. Department of Energy). 

12Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act of 1978, 

16 U.S.C. 2621(d) (2010). 

13 Id. Section 2621(c)(16). 

14 Id. Section 2622(b)(6). 

15Cybersecurity Coordination Task Group, Smart 

Grid Cyber Security Strategy and Requirements, 

Draft NIST Report 7628 (Feb. 2010), available at 

http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/drafts/nistir-7628/ 

draft-nistir-7628_2nd-public-draft.pdf. 

16 Id. at 3. 

17 Id. at 1. 

18 Id. at 8. 19 Id. at 103. 20 Id. at 104. 21 Id. at 104–109. 22Cal. Pub. Util. Comm’n, Order Instituting 

Rulemaking to Consider Smart Grid Technologies 

Pursuant to Federal Legislation and on the 

Commission’s Own Motion to Actively Guide Policy 

in California’s Development of a Smart Grid 

System, Pub. Util. No. 08–12–009 (Dec. 18, 2009), 

available at http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/published/ 

FINAL_DECISION/95608.htm. 

of ongoing efforts to assess, implement 

and deploy Smart Grid technologies. 

These ongoing efforts implement 

existing legislation intended to 

encourage the use of such technologies 

to attain greater energy independence 

and security. 

The Energy Independence and 

Security Act (EISA) of 2007 established 

‘‘modernization of the nation’s 

electricity transmission and distribution 

system’’ as a U.S. policy goal.6 Among 

other things, EISA directed DOE to 

establish a Smart Grid Task Force whose 

responsibilities include developing 

widely accepted smart-grid standards 

and protocols.7 EISA also directed the 

National Institute of Standards and 

Technologies (NIST) to develop a 

framework of standards and protocols to 

ensure interoperability and security for 

the Smart Grid.8 Once the Federal 

Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) 

concludes that NIST has developed 

‘‘sufficient consensus,’’ EISA then 

directs FERC to ‘‘institute a rulemaking 

proceeding to adopt such standards and 

protocols as may be necessary to insure 

smart-grid functionality and 

interoperability in interstate 

transmission of electric power, and 

regional and wholesale electricity 

markets.’’ 9 On July 16, 2009, FERC 

issued a Policy Statement on Smart Grid 

Policy, which acknowledged that EISA 

does not make any such standards 

mandatory and gave FERC no new 

authority to enforce such standards.10

For more than two years, DOE–NIST– 

FERC coordination on these standards 

has been ongoing through the Federal 

Smart Grid Task Force, the EISAmandated group that involves agencies 

from across the Federal government.11

Section 1307 of EISA also amended 

section 111(d) of the Public Utilities 

Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA) by 

adding two paragraphs regarding the 

Smart Grid, paragraphs 18 and 19 in 16 

U.S.C. 2621(d).12 As amended, PURPA 

requires states and other entities to 

decide whether to adopt a policy 

requiring its electric utilities to show 

why they did not invest in qualified 

smart grid technologies before investing 

in non-advanced grid technologies.13 In 

addition, states and other entities must 

consider imposing requirements for 

information disclosure to customers and 

others regarding price, usage, intervals 

and projection, sources and customer 

access to their own electric 

consumption information at any time 

through the Internet or other means 

elected by the utility for Smart Grid 

applications. EISA requires that states 

and other entities make such decisions 

no later than 2 years after December 19, 

2007.14

DOE’s Preliminary Review of Some 

Ongoing Federal and State Efforts to 

Implement the Smart Grid-Related 

Obligations Imposed by EISA and 

PURPA 

To advance its ongoing policies and 

programs, to implement certain 

recommendations in the NBP, and to 

focus this RFI, DOE initiated an 

informal, high-level review of the status 

of ongoing Federal, State, and private 

efforts to implement the Smart Grid 

related provisions of EISA and PURPA. 

Even this informal review reveals some 

of the important issues arising as 

Federal, State and private entities have 

begun developing, deploying, and 

implementing Smart Grid technologies. 

The following summary is intended to 

highlight a few of these issues. 

Various entities are consulting an 

array of guidelines and principles when 

framing their approaches to access-andprivacy issues. For example, to further 

coordinate development of a framework 

to achieve interoperability of Smart Grid 

devices and systems, including 

protocols and model standards for 

information management, NIST released 

Draft Interagency Report 7628 (Feb. 

2010)—Smart Grid Cyber Security: 

Strategy and Requirements.15 This Draft 

NISTIR was developed by members of 

the Smart Grid Interoperability PanelCyber Security Working Group (SGIP– 

CSWG).16 The Draft Report focuses on 

security and privacy, two areas that will 

be important to the success of SmartGrid development, deployment and 

implementation.17

The SGIP–CSWG Privacy Sub-group 

conducted a high-level privacy impact 

assessment (PIA) for the consumer-toutility portion of the Smart Grid and 

considered the privacy impacts and 

risks throughout the entire Smart Grid 

structure. While the evolving Smart 

Grid will provide enormous societal 

benefits including better asset 

utilization and grid reliability, it will 

also present potential privacy risks. The 

ability to access, analyze and respond to 

much more precise and detailed data 

from all levels of the electric grid is one 

of the major benefits of the Smart Grid, 

but those benefits could be lost or 

substantially delayed unless consumers 

recognize that Smart Grid technologies 

also respect their reasonable 

expectations of privacy and data 

security, particularly when usage data 

and data extrapolations can be 

associated with individual consumers or 

locations.18 The PIA also noted that 

State utility commissions currently lack 

formal privacy policies or standards 

related to the Smart Grid, and that 

comprehensive and consistent 

definitions of privacy-affecting 

information with respect to the Smart 

Grid typically do not exist at State or 

Federal regulatory levels, or within the 

utility industry.19

As a result of the assessment, the 

Privacy Sub-group developed a 

preliminary set of privacy principles 

using the following sets of widely 

accepted privacy principles: The OECD 

Privacy Principles, the Generally 

Accepted Privacy Principles (GAPP), 

and principles from the international 

information security standard ISO/IEC 

27001. The Sub-group considered these 

to be very general privacy principles 

designed to be applicable across a broad 

range of industries; they are not 

mandatory requirements.20 These 

privacy principles are: Management and 

accountability; notice and purpose; 

choice and consent; collection and 

scope; use and retention; individual 

access; disclosure and limiting use; 

security and safeguards; accuracy and 

quality; and, openness, monitoring, and 

challenging compliance.21

Another potential framework for 

considering privacy and consumer 

security issues is the Fair Information 

Practice Principles (FIPPs) adopted by 

the U.S. Department of Homeland 

Security (DHS).22 The FIPPs form the 

basis of the Department’s privacy 

compliance policies and procedures 

governing the use of personally 

identifiable information (PII). These 


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Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 90 / Tuesday, May 11, 2010 / Notices 26205 

23 Department of Homeland Security, Privacy 

Policy Guidance Memorandum 2008–01 (2008), 

available at http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/ 

privacy/privacy_policyguide_2008–01.pdf. 

24 Id. at 2. 

25Order Instituting Rulemaking to Consider 

Smart Grid Technologies Pursuant to Federal 

Legislation and on the Commission’s Own Motion 

to Actively Guide Policy in California’s 

Development of a Smart Grid System, http:// 

docs.cpuc.ca.gov/published/FINAL_DECISION/ 

95608.htm. 

26 Id. at 3. 

27Tex. Util. Code Ann. § 39.107(b) (Vernon Supp. 

2009). 

28Houston Business Journal, CenterPoint, state 

launch Smart Meter portal, March 22, 2010, 

available at http://houston.bizjournals.com/ 

houston/stories/2010/03/22/daily28.html. 

29Act 2008–129, 66 Pa. C.S. § 2807(f) (Nov. 14, 

2008). 

30Lisa Schwartz, State Policies on Smart Grid, 

(2009), available at http://www.raponline.org/docs/ 

RAP_Schwartz_StatePolicyonSmartGrid_

2009_05_13.pdf. 

31National Association Of Regulatory Utility 

Commissioners, Resolution Urging the Adoption of 

General Privacy Principles For State Commission 

Use in Considering the Privacy implications of the 

Use of Utility Customer Information, available at 

http://www.naruc.org/Resolutions/ 

privacy_principles.pdf. 

32Order Instituting Rulemaking to Consider 

Smart Grid Technologies Pursuant to Federal 

Legislation and on the Commission’s Own Motion 

to Actively Guide Policy in California’s 

Development of a Smart Grid System, http:// 

docs.cpuc.ca.gov/published/FINAL_DECISION/ 

95608.htm at 4.1.2. 

principles are: Transparency, Individual 

Participation, Purpose Specification, 

Data Minimization, Use Limitation, Data 

Quality and Integrity, Security, and 

Accountability and Auditing.23

The FIPPs are a widely accepted 

framework that implement the core 

provisions of the Privacy Act of 1974 

and are mirrored in the laws of many 

U.S. states, as well as the laws of many 

foreign nations and international 

organizations.24

While Federal entities have been 

analyzing the privacy and security 

implications of the Smart Grid, State 

public utilities commissions have been 

conducting their own inquiries and 

rulemakings on consumer access to 

energy-usage data. For example, on 

December 29, 2009, the California 

Public Utilities Commission issued 

Decision 09–12–046, Decision Adopting 

Policies and Findings Pursuant to the 

Smart Grid Policies. 25

The decision adopts policies for the 

three major investor-owned public 

utilities (SCE, PG&E, and SDG&E) on 

consumer access to usage and price 

information that will be available 

through California’s Smart Grid 

infrastructure; these include a policy 

goal that SCE, PG&E, and SDG&E 

provide consumers with access to 

electricity price information by the end 

of 2010. The decision also requires that 

SCE, PG&E, and SDG&E provide 

consumers and third parties approved 

by consumers with collected usage data 

by the end of 2010, as well as requiring 

that SCE, PG&E and SDG&E provide 

those customers with smart meters and 

authorized third parties with access to 

usage data on a near real-time basis by 

the end of 2011.26 The Commission held 

a separate workshop on March 19, 2010 

to consider the best methods for 

providing access to electricity prices 

and usage data, due to the high level of 

interest in the proceeding. 

In 2007, The Public Utility 

Commission of Texas adopted, among 

other things, a new rule that addressed 

the importance of balancing the 

interests of customers, Retail Electric 

Providers (REPs), and electric utilities, 

with respect to advanced metering. 

Texas consumers own all meter data, 

including data from advanced meters 

and meter information networks.27 In 

March 2010, CenterPoint Energy and 

other Texas Utilities launched a Smart 

Meter Texas common portal and data 

repository to give consumers with smart 

meters more control over their 

electricity use. Consumers with 

installed smart meters can now view 

their electric usage history down to 15- 

minute intervals on the Internet. The 

Web portal was developed and is 

operated by IBM Corp.28

Pennsylvania enacted legislation 

requiring electric distribution 

companies with over 100,000 customers 

to file smart-meter-technology 

procurement and installation plans for 

approval by the Public Utility 

Commission.29 The Pennsylvania Public 

Utilities Commission staff drafted a 

proposal for implementing Act 129 

plans, including nondiscriminatory 

access to information by third parties.30

Finally, in 2000, the National 

Association of Regulatory Utility 

Commissioners (NARUC) adopted a 

resolution urging the adoption of 

general privacy principles for State 

commissions when assessing the 

privacy implications of third-party use 

of utility-customer information.31

However, it does not appear that many 

State utility commissions have 

completed their assessments of accessand-privacy issues related to the Smart 

Grid. 

All of these examples illustrate both 

common themes and variations in the 

approaches that numerous entities are 

taking to address the privacy and 

security issues inherent in the 

development, deployment, and 

implementation of Smart Grid 

technologies. As a result, DOE is 

publishing this RFI to seek broader 

public and private input on the privacy 

and security issues inherent in the 

development, deployment, and 

implementation of Smart Grid 

technologies. We seek comment on 

these specific approaches as well as 

information on additional approaches 

that are not listed here. 

Request for Information 

Smart Grid technologies should 

ensure that both states and consumers 

retain the flexibility to strike a range of 

reasonable compromises between the 

benefits of data collection and access, 

and the protection of personal privacy. 

As the California Public Utilities 

Commission noted in their December 

2009 Decision, the availability of 

information on usage and prices in a 

consistent format can lead to energy 

management solutions that at this time 

we can only begin to imagine.32

Balancing these important interests 

remains an important challenge for 

Smart Grid development, deployment, 

and implementation processes. In this 

RFI, DOE thus seeks input on how to 

best achieve this desire to foster 

flexibility, innovation, and consumer 

privacy and choice. 

In addition, DOE also seeks to 

promote the development of Smart Grid 

technologies in ways that accommodate 

both its important national and local 

implications. The Smart Grid will play 

a critical role in achieving national 

priorities like enabling new ways to 

enhance energy efficiency, enhancing 

national competitiveness, improving 

national security by increasing our 

energy independence, and developing 

sustainable, long-term energy strategies 

that protect our environment and 

economy. But flexibility to experiment 

is also one of the critical benefits arising 

from our dual system of Federal-State 

sovereignty. Federal law already 

recognizes that Smart Grid technologies 

implicate traditional State interests in 

autonomy, utilities-regulation and 

privacy-management. DOE thus seeks 

guidance on how to best balance the 

complementary private and public 

interests implicated by Smart Grid 

technologies. 

Finally, this request for information 

seeks to survey whether and how the 

states are implementing these 

obligations; whether implementation 

efforts support the conclusion that the 

requirements set out in PURPA meet the 

current and potential needs of utilities, 

consumers, and third parties; what 

efforts are being made to implement 

these requirements; and whether 

patterns, common practices or 

consensuses emerge from analysis of 


emcdonald on DSK2BSOYB1PROD with NOTICES
26206 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 90 / Tuesday, May 11, 2010 / Notices 

33TMCnet, Consumer Interface with the Smart 

Grid, http://sip-trunking.tmcnet.com/news/2010/ 

02/09/4613238.htm (last visited Apr. 27, 2010) 

existing implementations of these 

requirements. 

List of Questions for Commenters 

The following list of questions 

represents a preliminary attempt to 

identify and respond to the issues that 

have been raised in a variety of public 

and private forums, including but 

limited to: DOE’s historic investment in 

Smart Grid technology through the 

Smart Grid Investment Grants and the 

Smart Grid Demonstrations projects; 

Smart Grid Forum blog initiated by the 

Office of Science and Technology policy 

titled ‘‘Consumer Interface with the 

Smart Grid 33’’; and the National 

Broadband Plan regarding the Smart 

Grid and issues of data access and 

collection, third party access to detailed 

energy information, and privacy. This 

list is to assist in the formulation of 

comments and is not intended to restrict 

the issues that might be addressed in the 

comments. 

In addressing these questions or 

others, commenters must also recognize 

that this RFI is intended to assist and 

inform DOE’s efforts to address the 

aspects of these questions that most 

directly implicate the duties and 

responsibilities assigned by law to DOE 

and the Secretary of Energy. This 

qualification is important because the 

global concept of a Smart Grid 

inevitably implicates the jurisdiction 

and expertise of many other Federal 

agencies as evidenced in the 

composition of the Federal Smart Grid 

Task Force, not to mention Federal law 

enforcement agencies, and others. DOE 

fully intends to respect the jurisdiction 

and expertise of these and other Federal 

entities. Consequently, comments 

directed to matters deemed more 

relevant to the jurisdiction and expertise 

of other Federal entities will provide 

little assistance relevant to this RFI. 

(1) Who owns energy consumption 

data? 

(2) Who should be entitled to privacy 

protections relating to energy 

information? 

(3) What, if any, privacy practices 

should be implemented in protecting 

energy information? 

(4) Should consumers be able to opt 

in/opt out of smart meter deployment or 

have control over what information is 

shared with utilites or third parties? 

(5) What mechanisms should be made 

available to consumers to report 

concerns or problems with the smart 

meters? 

(6) How do policies and practices 

address the needs of different 

communities, especially low-income 

rate payers or consumers with low 

literacy or limited access to broadband 

technologies? 

(7) Which, if any, international, 

Federal, or State data-privacy standards 

are most relevant to Smart-Grid 

development, deployment, and 

implementation? 

(8) Which of the potentially relevant 

data privacy standards are best suited to 

provide a framework that will provide 

opportunities to experiment, rewards for 

successful innovators, and flexible 

protections that can accommodate 

widely varying reasonable consumer 

expectations? 

(9) Because access and privacy are 

complementary goods, consumers are 

likely to have widely varying 

preferences about how closely they 

want to control and monitor third-party 

access to their energy information: what 

mechanisms exist that would empower 

consumers to make a range of 

reasonable choices when balancing the 

potential benefits and detriments of 

both privacy and access? 

(10) What security architecture 

provisions should be built into Smart 

Grid technologies to protect consumer 

privacy? 

(11) How can DOE best implement its 

mission and duties in the Smart Grid 

while respecting the jurisdiction and 

expertise of other Federal entities, states 

and localities? 

(12) When, and through what 

mechanisms, should authorized agents 

of Federal, State, or local governments 

gain access to energy consumption data? 

(13) What third parties, if any, should 

have access to energy information? How 

should interested third-parties be able to 

gain access to energy consumption data, 

and what standards, guidelines, or 

practices might best assist third parties 

in handling and protecting this data? 

(14) What forms of energy information 

should consumers or third parties have 

access to? 

(15) What types of personal energy 

information should consumers have 

access to in real-time, or near real-time? 

(16) What steps have the states taken 

to implement Smart Grid privacy, data 

collection, and third party use of 

information policies? 

(17) What steps have investor owned 

utilities, municipalities, public power 

entities, and electric cooperatives taken 

to implement Smart Grid privacy, data 

collection and third party use of 

information policies? 

(18) Should DOE consider consumer 

data accessibility policies when 

evaluating future Smart Grid grant 

applications? 

Issued in Washington, DC on May 5, 2010. 

Scott Blake Harris, 

General Counsel. 

[FR Doc. 2010–11127 Filed 5–10–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6450–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Implementing the National Broadband 

Plan by Studying the Communications 

Requirements of Electric Utilities To 

Inform Federal Smart Grid Policy 

AGENCY: Department of Energy. 

ACTION: Request for information (RFI). 

SUMMARY: The Department of Energy 

(DOE) is seeking comments and 

information from interested parties to 

assist DOE in understanding the 

communications requirements of 

utilities, including, but not limited to, 

the requirements of the Smart Grid. This 

RFI also seeks to collect information 

about electricity infrastructure’s current 

and projected communications 

requirements, as well as the types of 

networks and communications services 

that may be used for grid 

modernization. Specifically, DOE seeks 

information on what types of 

communications capabilities that the 

utilities think that they will need and 

what type of communications 

capabilities that the communications 

carriers think that they can provide. 

DATES: Comments must be postmarked 

by no later than July 12, 2010. Reply 

comments must be postmarked by no 

later than July 26, 2010. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, 

identified by ‘‘NBP RFI: 

Communications Requirements,’’ by any 

of the following methods: 

Federal eRulemaking Portal: http:// 

www.regulations.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments. 

E-mail: broadband@hq.doe.gov. 

Include ‘‘NBP RFI: Communications 

Requirements’’ in the subject line of the 

message. 

Mail: U.S. Department of Energy, 

Office of the General Counsel, 1000 

Independence Avenue, SW., Room 

6A245, Washington, DC 20585. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Maureen C. McLaughlin, Senior Legal 

Advisor to the General Counsel (202) 

586–5281; broadband@hq.doe.gov. 

For Media Inquiries you may contact 

Jen Stutsman at 202–586–4940. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

In early 2009, Congress directed the 

Federal Communications Commission 

(FCC) to create the recently released 


emcdonald on DSK2BSOYB1PROD with NOTICES