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In response to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (“DOE”) Request for Information (“RFI”) published May 11, 2010 in the Federal Register,1 the American Public Power Association (“APPA”) hereby submits its comments in response to questions on data access, third party use, and privacy as related to the implementation of smart grid technology.

Pepco Holdings, Inc. (PHI) is pleased to respond to the U.S Department of Energy request for comments regarding the communications requirements of electric utilities deploying the Smart Grid.

The DOE questions are restated followed by an answer. Please note that this matter is also related to the May 11, 2010 RFI on needs for utility communications. If data is provided to third parties there is a data processing and communications cost that depends on how many parties data is provided to and by how often data is communicated. These costs are minimized if an in-home display and/or smart thermostat are provided data directly from a smart meter.

Tendril is pleased to provide these comments to the Department of Energy in response to the Request for Information “Implementing the National Broadband Plan by Empowering Consumers and the Smart Grid: Data Access, Third Party Use, and Privacy.”

National Cable & Telecommunications Association comments on Implementing the National Broadband Plan by Studying the Communications Requirements of Electric Utilities to Inform Federal Smart Grid Policy

San Diego Gas & Electric Company (“SDG&E”) files these comments in response to the above-enumerated Request for Information noticed by the Department on May 11, 2010. SDG&E is a regulated public electric and gas utility operating pursuant to authorities granted to it by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the State of California. SDG&E serves 3.4 million consumers in the San Diego and southern Orange County areas of California via 1.4 million electric meters and 830,000 gas meters. SDG&E’s sister company, the Southern California Gas Company, is the nation’s largest gas-distribution utility, serving another 20.3 million consumers in a 20,000 square-mile area via 5.7 million gas meters.

The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (“NASUCA”) hereby submits the following comments in response to the United States Department of Energy (“DOE”) Request for Information (“RFI”) entitled “Implementing the National Broadband Plan by Empowering Consumers and the Smart Grid: Data Access, Third Party Use, and Privacy.” See 75 Fed. Reg. 26203 (May 11, 2010). The RFI requests comments and information from interested parties to assist DOE in understanding current and potential practices and policies for the states and other entities 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. NASUCA is a voluntary organization comprised of offices from 40 states and the District of Columbia, charged by their respective state laws to represent utility consumers before federal and state utility regulatory commissions, before other federal and state agencies, and before federal and state courts. Many NASUCA members have extensive experience with regulatory policies governing the utility industry and have participated in proceedings concerning smart grid and consumer privacy issues. NASUCA members’ primary interest is the protection of residential and other small utility consumers’ interests.

Cleco Corporation greatly appreciates the opportunity to provide information to the Department of Energy (DOE) on the communications needs of utilities. Cleco is an energy services company based in central Louisiana, serving approximately 276,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers since 1934. Cleco manages over 3,000 megawatts of electric capacity through its regulated Cleco Power LLC and unregulated Cleco Midstream Resources LLC businesses, utilizing a diverse fuel mix of lignite, coal, petcoke and natural gas. With 1,300 employees, Cleco manages and operates 70 transmission substations connected via 1,300 miles of transmission lines, together feeding over 350 distribution substations, dispersed over approximately 7,000 square miles.

Pepco Holdings, Inc. (PHI) is pleased to respond to the U.S Department of Energy request for comments regarding the topics of data access, third party usage and privacy as they relate to consumers energy usage information and the Smart Grid.

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) is the national service organization representing more than 900 not-for-profit, member-owned rural electric cooperatives (“Cooperatives”). Most of NRECA’s members are distribution cooperatives, providing retail electric service to more than 42 million consumers in 47 states. NRECA members also include approximately 66 generation and transmission (“G&T”) cooperatives that supply wholesale power to their distribution cooperative member-owners. Cooperatives provide service to approximately 75 percent of the nation’s land mass, resulting in a consumer density of just seven consumers per mile of line, significantly less density than that of investor or municipally owned utilities.1 Both distribution and G&T Cooperatives were formed to provide their members with adequate and reliable electric service at the lowest reasonable cost. In total, kilowatt-hour sales by Cooperatives account for approximately 11 percent of all electric energy sold in the United States.