PG&E, SmartMeter Demand Metering and Privacy

Pacific Gas & Electric received approval of its Smart Meter proposal by the California Public Utilities Commission. One interesting privacy aspect of the SmartMeter proposal is that it "will continually read circuits so that within minutes of a power outage, PG&E can pinpoint the outage size and location. In many cases, this will allow dispatchers to send crews directly to suspected trouble spots . . .". This sounds fine, but could lead to privacy issues. For potential issues, such as "Access to in-home sensor data may expose information on in-home activity" see this presentation by Erin Jones and Professor Deirdre K. Mulligan: Privacy and the Law in Demand Response Energy Systems