Who Owns Your Meter Data, and What Is It Worth?

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1. 02 The mechanism Who can say yes, and the pipe your data travels through

   Before you negotiate any data agreement, you need to know whether the data is yours to give. That question shows up as paperwork. Your utility may require a separate authorization form before it releases interval data in bulk. It may require a non-disclosure agreement, a contract that forbids the recipient from passing the information on. And the third party, meaning any company that is not you and not your utility, will ask you to sign an authorization of its own.

   For households, the federal Energy Information Administration reports that customers generally own their interval data, so a third party has to ask permission. That idea is now being carried over to commercial and industrial accounts. Trouble is, practice varies widely by state and by utility, and several utilities treat large accounts differently from homes.

   Minnesota has written its answer down. A customer there must give written consent before specific usage data is shared. Aggregated data, meaning data pooled across many customers so no single customer can be identified, can be shared without consent. If you run several sites, a benchmarking service may offer to treat your data as aggregated. That can lower the consent bar. It also reduces what the service can tell you about any single site. So require explicit written authorization, refuse passive opt-out, and define in writing what counts as aggregated data and what counts as site-specific data.

   Access pathways

   The pipe decides where your protection comes from

   Pathway

   Static download

   You or your utility export a spreadsheet and send it over. It is a snapshot, it goes stale, and monthly downloads throw away most of what the meter records.

   Pathway

   Green Button Connect My Data

   An open data standard from the Green Button Alliance. A third party you have authorized pulls your interval data securely from the utility, with permission controls built into the standard itself.

   Protection is structural

   Pathway

   Proprietary channel

   The utility's own access system, data released only under a non-disclosure agreement, or in some states an exemption from the utility commission's rules.

   Protection is contractual

   1. 1 List the permitted uses of your data in the agreement. 3 requirements
   2. 2 Prohibit resale of your data, or folding it into another product, without your written consent.
   3. 3 Require deletion of your data when the contract ends.
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2. 03 What it does to you What your load profile tells an outsider, and when a request carries commands

   Interval data is sensitive because of what the load profile shows. The policy researchers at DSIRE Insight note that large industrial usage data can reveal operation profiles and production capacity. Your load profile can show when your shifts start, how heavily your lines run and when the building sits idle.

   Your shift pattern

   When load rises and falls each day shows when your shifts start and when the building sits idle.

   Expansion or contraction

   Over months, rising load can show an expansion and falling load a contraction, sometimes before you have announced anything.

   Your utilization rate

   A competitor, a buyer sizing you up for an acquisition, or an investor betting against your stock could read it from the data.

   Your largest customer

   In cold storage, peaks in your load can line up with a known client's shipment cycles, which can tell an outsider who that client is.

   Treat every data request as two separate questions. Who gets the data? And how fine-grained is the data they get? Those are your levers in any negotiation, and you can pull either one or both.

   Read access versus control

   When an aggregator asks for a live feed

   A virtual power plant, or VPP, is a pool of flexible loads, demand response programs and on-site generation, combined by a utility or a third party and run together to provide services to the grid. Demand response is a program where your facility reduces its load when asked. To run a VPP, the aggregator needs reliable meter data, and participation means control commands flowing from the aggregator back to your site. Facilities with large, flexible loads, like cold storage and data centers, are prime targets for these requests.

   Passive analytics	Read-only history, looking backward	An audit firm or analytics vendor	Written as read-only access in the agreement
   Active participation	A live data feed, plus dispatch or curtailment commands to your equipment	A demand response provider or VPP aggregator	Command rights as a separate term, negotiated on its own

   Name the category in the agreement. Read-only access for an audit should be written as read-only. Any right to send commands to your equipment should be its own term, negotiated on its own. Under no circumstances should a right to command your equipment be assumed from a data access clause.

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3. 04 The trap that costs you Free analytics, an open-ended use clause and no deletion date

   The weak proposal looks generous. It offers analytics at no charge, or at a discount, in exchange for access to your interval data. The use clause says "analytics." There is no deletion date. And the connection runs through a proprietary channel. That combination can leave your load profile in someone else's hands for as long as they like.

   What the proposal assumes	What actually happens
   Free analytics costs you nothing.	A regulator has already approved a fee for interval data, so your data has a price.
   "Analytics" is a narrow permitted use.	Analytics as the only stated use permits almost anything.
   A silent contract keeps your data protected.	With no deletion clause, the third party may keep your data indefinitely.
   Opt-out consent counts as consent.	Under opt-out, your silence is treated as a yes.
   One national template covers every site.	There is no uniform set of rules across states.

   Here's the precedent on price. In 2,024, the Illinois Commerce Commission approved a tariff rider for Commonwealth Edison, the Chicago-area utility, called Interval Meter Usage Data. It shares interval data with retail electric providers so they can build and market energy management products, and it allows Commonwealth Edison to charge those providers a fee. That fee goes to the utility and the rider covers residential and small commercial customers, so it does not guarantee you a payment. It does give you a reasonable basis to ask what you get in return.

   The utility side is building the same business. Hitachi Digital Services markets a smart meter data monetization product to utilities, with a roadmap of more than 50 capabilities, and customer profiling is one of them. Your load profile may be packaged as a product whether or not you ever sign with a third party. Silence in a contract gives you no protection against that.

   On retention, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission issued an order in 2,024 that lets utilities require third parties to delete energy data after 5 years, or when the program that needed the data ends, such as a federal grant. A retention ceiling is the maximum time a third party may hold your data, and a deletion clause requires it to destroy or return the data at a set point. The Minnesota order shows a regulator treating deletion as a reasonable condition, so you can ask for a deletion or return clause tied to the end of your contract as a standard term. The order itself does not govern your private contracts.

   Multi-state portfolios

   Sites in more than one state get no single rulebook

   State	Status of interval data rules	Reference point
   Massachusetts	Lawmakers are considering bills for a central smart meter data repository open to customers and third parties	2 bills
   North Carolina	A proceeding on customer energy and billing data has been open since	2,019
   New Jersey	Regulators hold work sessions, with little substantive action since	2,022

   If you operate sites in more than one state, write the data agreement to the most protective state standard that applies to you, or attach a separate rider for each state. Rulemaking on energy usage data moves slowly, so the rules you have today are the rules you will be signing under.

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4. 05 Your leverage The order to work in, and what to ask for in return

   Interval data agreements go wrong when the terms get written before the basics are known. Work the decision in a fixed order. Confirm ownership and consent first, because you cannot negotiate terms for data you do not control. Find out which pathway your utility offers, because that tells you how much your contract has to carry. Sort the request into passive analytics or active participation, because commands to your equipment need their own terms. Then write the terms.

   The order to work an interval data request

   The terms are consent, the definition of aggregated data, the list of permitted uses, retention and deletion, and value back. On value, the most common answer is a lower service fee. Anything beyond that depends on how much the third party needs your site and how fine-grained your data is.

   Where the answer is yes

   When sharing helps, and when it is required

   Sharing helps when a third party needs fine-grained data to deliver something you want. The Technical Assistance Partnership works with industrial facilities to find cost savings, and much of those savings comes from reducing peak demand and moving load to other hours. Interval data at 15 minutes lets that kind of analysis produce far more accurate recommendations than a stack of bills.

   Sometimes sharing is an obligation. If your organization has accepted federal grant money, the program may require measured savings. The Environmental Protection Agency's Solar For All program, for example, requires verification that customers see 20% bill savings. If your goal is meeting that requirement, the question becomes how to limit what you share and how long it is kept.

   1. 1 Pull every agreement and proposal that involves your meter data, and check each one for a list of permitted uses and a deletion clause.
   2. 2 Call your utility and ask whether it offers Green Button Connect My Data, and what forms or non-disclosure agreements it requires for interval data on a large account.
   3. 3 Ask your utility account representative which state commission rule or tariff governs release of customer usage data, and whether it treats large commercial accounts the same as homes. Ask in every state where you operate.
   4. 4 Sort every open request into passive analytics or active participation before anyone signs anything.
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5. Decision matrix

   When to grant interval data access, and when to hold it

   ✓ Grant access when

   • The third party needs fine-grained data to deliver something you want, such as a peak demand or load shifting analysis.
   • The agreement names the third party and lists the permitted uses.
   • Your utility offers Green Button Connect My Data and the third party will connect through it.
   • The agreement carries a deletion or return clause tied to the end of the contract.
   • A federal grant you accepted requires measured savings, and the scope and retention are limited in writing.

   ✗ Hold or renegotiate when

   • The only stated use is "analytics."
   • The agreement says nothing about deletion.
   • Consent works by opt-out, so your silence counts as a yes.
   • Access is offered as free in exchange for analytics, with nothing back for your data.
   • A data access clause could be read as a right to send commands to your equipment.
   Questions for your morning huddle

   1. Which agreements we've already signed give a third party access to our interval data, and do any of them have a deletion clause?
   2. Does our utility offer Green Button Connect My Data, or are we relying entirely on contracts?
   3. For our engineer: if a demand response provider asked for a live feed, which of our systems could receive dispatch or curtailment commands, and who would approve that?
   4. What are we getting back today for the meter data we already share?
   The one thing to remember

   Your interval data shows how your operation runs. Grant it only to a named third party, for listed uses, through Green Button Connect My Data where your utility offers it, and under a contract with a deletion date and value back where it does not.

   Before you say yes to the next request for your interval data, get the permitted uses, the access pathway and the deletion date in writing.

   The Energy Decision Blueprint

   Know if the numbers actually pencil out before you sign anything.

   A written second opinion on the project in front of you, whether that is a rate change, new equipment, or a renewable installation.

   1. 01A short call, to figure out quickly whether we can actually be helpful. If we can't, we'll say so on the spot.
   2. 02We pull the data, your bills, your rate structure, vendor proposals, project specs.
   3. 03You get the verdict in writing: whether the payback will materialize, and the opportunities or risks nobody has raised.

   Get a Blueprint at blueprint.tac-nrg.com Free for Indiana-based operations spending five figures or more a month on electricity. No obligation. You keep the write-up either way.
   Questions operators ask

   who owns my facility's interval meter data

   It depends on your state and your utility. For households, the federal Energy Information Administration reports that customers generally own their interval data, so a third party has to ask permission. That idea is being carried over to commercial and industrial accounts, but practice varies widely, and several utilities handle large accounts with separate authorization forms or non-disclosure agreements. Ask your utility account representative which state commission rule or tariff governs release of customer usage data, and whether large commercial accounts are treated the same as homes.

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6. The Energy Decision Blueprint

   Know if the numbers actually pencil out before you sign anything.

   A written second opinion on the project in front of you, whether that is a rate change, new equipment, or a renewable installation.

   1. 01A short call, to figure out quickly whether we can actually be helpful. If we can't, we'll say so on the spot.
   2. 02We pull the data, your bills, your rate structure, vendor proposals, project specs.
   3. 03You get the verdict in writing: whether the payback will materialize, and the opportunities or risks nobody has raised.

   Get a Blueprint at blueprint.tac-nrg.com Free for Indiana-based operations spending five figures or more a month on electricity. No obligation. You keep the write-up either way.
   Questions operators ask

   who owns my facility's interval meter data

   It depends on your state and your utility. For households, the federal Energy Information Administration reports that customers generally own their interval data, so a third party has to ask permission. That idea is being carried over to commercial and industrial accounts, but practice varies widely, and several utilities handle large accounts with separate authorization forms or non-disclosure agreements. Ask your utility account representative which state commission rule or tariff governs release of customer usage data, and whether large commercial accounts are treated the same as homes.

   can a competitor figure out my production schedule from my meter data

   Yes, if they get interval data. A meter recording every 15 minutes produces more than 35,000 readings/year, enough to show when your shifts start, how heavily your lines run and when the building sits idle. Over months, rising or falling load can show an expansion or contraction before you announce it. DSIRE Insight notes that large industrial usage data can reveal operation profiles and production capacity. Monthly bill totals reveal very little.

   what is green button connect my data and should i use it

   Green Button Connect My Data is an open data standard from the Green Button Alliance. It lets a third party you have authorized pull your interval data securely from your utility, with the permission controls built into the standard. That makes your protection structural. Under a utility's proprietary channel, your only protection is the contract, and it holds only as far as you can enforce it. Insist on Green Button Connect My Data wherever your utility offers it.

   should a vendor pay me for my meter data

   You have a reasonable basis to ask for something back. In 2,024 the Illinois Commerce Commission approved a Commonwealth Edison tariff rider that lets the utility charge retail electric providers a fee for interval data, which establishes that the data has market value. The most common return is a lower service fee. That fee goes to the utility and the rider covers smaller customers, so it does not guarantee you a payment.

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7. what is green button connect my data and should i use it

   Green Button Connect My Data is an open data standard from the Green Button Alliance. It lets a third party you have authorized pull your interval data securely from your utility, with the permission controls built into the standard. That makes your protection structural. Under a utility's proprietary channel, your only protection is the contract, and it holds only as far as you can enforce it. Insist on Green Button Connect My Data wherever your utility offers it.

   should a vendor pay me for my meter data

   You have a reasonable basis to ask for something back. In 2,024 the Illinois Commerce Commission approved a Commonwealth Edison tariff rider that lets the utility charge retail electric providers a fee for interval data, which establishes that the data has market value. The most common return is a lower service fee. That fee goes to the utility and the rider covers smaller customers, so it does not guarantee you a payment.

   how long can a third party keep my energy data

   As long as your contract allows. With no deletion clause, a third party may keep your data indefinitely. A Minnesota Public Utilities Commission order from 2,024 lets utilities require third parties to delete energy data after 5 years, or when the program that needed it ends. That order does not govern private contracts, but it supports asking for a deletion or return clause tied to the end of your agreement.

   does demand response give a third party control of my equipment

   It can. A virtual power plant or demand response aggregator needs a live feed from your meter, and participation means dispatch or curtailment commands flowing back to your site. An audit firm only reads your history. Write read-only access as read-only, and make any right to send commands to your equipment its own term, negotiated separately. A data access clause should never be read as granting command rights.

   Glossary

   Interval data

   Usage readings from your utility meter for each fixed block of time, typically every 15 minutes or every hour, measured in kilowatt-hours.

   Load profile

   The shape of your electricity use across every hour of every day, drawn from a year of interval readings.

   Owner of record

   The party your state's rules name as the one whose written yes is required before interval data is released to a third party.

   Aggregated data

   Data pooled across many customers so no single customer can be identified. In Minnesota it can be shared without consent, and it tells a service less about any single site.

   Green Button Connect My Data

   An open data standard from the Green Button Alliance that lets an authorized third party pull your interval data securely from the utility, with permission controls built into the standard.

   Proprietary channel

   A utility's own data access system, or release only under a non-disclosure agreement. Under it, the contract is your only protection.

   Virtual power plant

   A pool of flexible loads, demand response programs and on-site generation, combined by a utility or third party and run together to provide services to the grid.

   Active participation

   A data arrangement that uses a live feed so an aggregator can send dispatch or curtailment commands to your equipment, as opposed to read-only passive analytics.

   Deletion clause

   A contract term that requires a third party to destroy or return your data at a set point, such as the end of the contract or a fixed retention ceiling.

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