Illinois General Assembly - Full Text of SB2478

LRB104 08508 AAS 18560 b

104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2025 and 2026
SB2478

Introduced 2/7/2025, by Sen. Mattie Hunter

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

New Act

Creates the Utility Data Access Act. Requires the Illinois Commerce Commission to enact the following procedures: (1) a utility shall retain all consumption data for a period of not less than 2 years; (2) a qualified utility shall retain monthly consumption data used for billing for a period of not less than 15 years; (3) a utility shall honor an account holder's request to transmit the account holder's covered usage data held by the utility to any entity designated by the account holder; (4) a qualified data recipient with respect to a qualified building or qualified property may request that a qualified utility provide aggregated usage data for the qualified building or qualified property; (5) a utility shall deliver requested data on a schedule set by the Commission; and (6) the account holder request process and utility delivery of requested data shall be convenient and secure. Establishes requirements for: the Commission's participation in a stakeholder process; the form and timeline in which covered usage data is provided to the data recipient; entry of data into the benchmarking tool; and the provision of covered usage data to recipients upon account holder authorization. Provides that, except in cases where the utility has not followed processes established by the Act or the utility is grossly negligent, the utility shall be held harmless for third-party misuse of data shared under the Act and no cause of action may be initiated against the utility for such subsequent misuse. Provides that prior to filing for cost recovery, a qualified utility must first demonstrate good faith efforts to secure federal, State, or other relevant funding options. Sets forth provisions regarding funding for the Commission to carry out its responsibilities under the Act and the Commission selecting and engaging outside consultants with experience in benchmarking and utility data access. States findings. Defines terms.

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning regulation.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Utility Data Access Act.

Section 5. Findings. The General Assembly finds and declares that optimizing energy and water use through whole-building utility data access is in the public interest because it provides consumers, building owners, utilities, and states with significant economic benefits. The General Assembly further finds the following:

(1) implementing building energy and water use data access legislation catalyzes the development of a strong market for building energy services which will positively impact the State's economy through significant job growth;

(2) improving the energy and water use efficiency of the existing building stock is a key strategy to help preserve the affordability of rental housing;

(3) energy and water use reductions stemming from data access can result in direct cost savings to customers and in peak load reductions that benefit all ratepayers;

(4) data access programs allow utilities to maximize the value of their energy and water use efficiency portfolio by engaging customers and directing them to energy and water efficiency programs and by enabling utilities to target low-performing buildings;

(5) implementing building data access enables building owners in the State to qualify for certain federal and other incentives to help them improve their assets;

(6) energy and water use data access is the foundation of a successful efficiency strategy and enables building owners to track energy and water use performance over time, set performance goals, and justify cost-effective energy and water use upgrades; and

(7) absent whole-building energy and water use data access legislation, building owners lack an efficient, defined process to obtain energy and water performance of their buildings in a manner that protects consumer confidentiality.

Section 10. Definitions. As used in this Act:

"Account holder" or "customer" means the person or entity authorized to access or modify utility account details.

"Aggregated usage data" means an aggregation of covered usage data, where all data associated with a qualified building or qualified property, including, but not limited to, data from tenant meters and from owner meters, are combined into one collective data point per utility data type, per time period, and where any unique identifiers or other personal information are removed or dissociated from individual meter data.

"Aggregation threshold" means 3 or more unique nonresidential qualified accounts or 5 or more unique qualified accounts of a property or building during the period for which data is requested.

"Benchmarking tool" means the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager web-based tool or any prudent and cost-effective alternative system or tool approved by the Commission that (i) enables the periodic entry of a building's energy use data and other descriptive information about a building and (ii) rates a building's energy efficiency against that of comparable buildings nationwide.

"Commission" means the Illinois Commerce Commission.

"Covered usage data" means electric, gas, district energy, water, or fuel delivery data collected from one or more utility meters that reflects the quantity and period of utility usage in the building, property, or portion thereof.

"Data recipient" means:

(1) an owner of the property or building;

(2) an owner of a portion of a property with regard to covered usage data only for the utility consumption the owner or the owner's tenants, if any, pay for and consume in the owned portion;

(3) a tenant with regard to covered usage data only for the utility consumption the tenant or the tenant's subtenants, if any, pay for and consume in the space leased by the tenant;

(4) the board in the case of a condominium or cooperative ownership of the property or building; or

(5) an agent authorized to receive the covered usage data by anyone in paragraphs (1) through (4).

"District energy" means steam, hot water, chilled water, and other heat or heat rejection services delivered through fixed pipes to multiple properties.

"Large qualified utility" means a utility that:

(1) has 100,000 or more active accounts, customers, or commercial or industrial service connections in the State; or

(2) has more than 50 active accounts, customers, or commercial or industrial service connections in the State and has over $500,000,000 in annual revenue from within the State.

"Medium qualified utility" means a utility that does not qualify as a large qualified utility and that:

(1) has 10,000 or more active accounts, customers, or commercial or industrial service connections in the State; or

(2) has more than 50 active accounts, customers, or commercial or industrial service connections in the State and has $40,000,000 to $500,000,000 in annual revenue from within the State.

"Property" means:

(1) a single tax parcel;

(2) 2 or more tax parcels held in the cooperative or condominium form of ownership and governed by a single board of managers; or

(3) 2 or more colocated tax parcels owned or controlled by the same entity.

"Qualified account" means a utility account that serves some or all of a building or property for which covered usage data is requested and that, as affirmed by the data recipient, was not controlled by the data recipient or its subsidiary during the time period for which covered usage data is requested.

"Qualified building" means a building that meets the aggregation threshold.

"Qualified data recipient" means a data recipient with respect to a qualified property or qualified building.

"Qualified property" means a property that meets the aggregation threshold.

"Qualified utility" means a large qualified utility, a medium qualified utility, or a small qualified utility.

"Small qualified utility" means a utility that that does not qualify as a medium qualified utility or a large qualified utility and that:

(1) has more than 1,000 active accounts, customers, or commercial or industrial service connections in the State; or

(2) has more than 20 active accounts, customers, or commercial or industrial service connections in the State and has more than $10,000,000 in annual revenue from within the State.

"Utility" means a company, cooperative, association, or government entity that distributes and sells electricity, natural gas, water, delivered fuel, including fuel oil, propane, kerosene, and coal, or district energy for use in buildings.

"Utility data type" means electric, gas, district energy, fuel delivery, or water.

Section 15. Utility data access.

(a) Within 90 days of the effective date of this Act, the Commission shall open a proceeding and establish by rule, consistent with the Illinois Administrative Procedure Act or other relevant rules and the requirements of subsection (c), procedures to implement the requirements of this Section. The Commission shall consider industry best practices in developing the implementing rules. The governing authority of a public utility district, municipally owned utility, or cooperative utility may adopt a rule adopted by the Commission.

(b) The Commission shall enact procedures whereby:

(1) A utility shall retain all consumption data for a period of not less than 2 years.

(2) A qualified utility shall retain monthly consumption data used for billing for a period of not less than 15 years.

(3) A utility shall honor an account holder's request to transmit the account holder's covered usage data held by the utility to any entity designated by the account holder.

(4) A qualified data recipient with respect to a qualified building or qualified property may request that a qualified utility provide aggregated usage data for the qualified building or qualified property. Aggregated usage data shall include identifiers of all meters associated with the aggregate data and any other information needed for data quality assurance.

(5) A utility shall deliver data requested under this subsection according to schedules set by the Commission.

(6) The account holder request process and utility delivery of requested data shall be convenient and secure.

(c) Within 100 days of opening a data access proceeding as described in subsection (b), the Commission shall initiate or participate in a stakeholder process to inform its fulfillment of the requirements described in subsection (b). The Commission stakeholder process shall:

(1) be completed in no more than 18 months;

(2) include stakeholder workshops organized and facilitated in a way that encourages representation from diverse stakeholders and ensures equitable opportunities for participation. Stakeholders shall not need formal intervention or legal representation to participate in the workshops;

(3) include opportunities for dialogue and written comments; and

(4) allow stakeholder responses to a straw proposal drafted by Commission staff or other stakeholders, as appropriate.

(d) Stakeholders include, but are not limited to, utilities, data recipients, tenants, environmental groups, consumer advocates, tenant advocates, housing advocates, local communities, and other interested members of the public.

(e) Notwithstanding any other law, aggregated usage data shall not be deemed customer utility usage information, personally identifiable information, critical energy infrastructure information, or confidential information and shall not be subject to protections as such.

(f) Any covered usage data that a utility provides to a data recipient under this Section must meet the following requirements:

(1) The covered usage data must be available to be requested online and in printable paper form. A nonqualified utility may provide only paper request forms upon showing of hardship. A utility's validation of the requester's identity shall be consistent with, and no more onerous than, the utility's then-current practices.

(2) The covered usage data must be provided to the data recipient in a timeframe, frequency, and format and be delivered by a method as may be determined by the Commission.

(g) Any covered usage data that a qualified utility provides to a data recipient under this Section must:

(1) be provided to the data recipient:

(A) within 90 days after receiving the data recipient's valid written or electronic request if the request is received within one year of the effective date of this Act; or

(B) within 30 days after receiving the data recipient's valid written or electronic request if the request is received more than one year after the effective date of this Act;

(2) subject to subsections (n) and (o), include at least the most recent 48 consecutive months of covered usage data prior to the initial date the data was requested, regardless of whether the data recipient had a business relationship with the building or property during that period;

(3) include all necessary data points for data recipients to comply with reporting requirements to which they are subject, including any such data that the utility possesses;

(4) be directly uploaded to the data recipient's benchmarking tool account, delivered in a spreadsheet in a standard format consistent with the benchmarking tool, or delivered in another format approved by the Commission, depending on utility size under subsection (h);

(5) be provided to the data recipient according to a schedule set by the Commission, but no less than monthly;

(6) be provided until the data recipient revokes the request for usage data or is no longer a data recipient or is no longer a qualified data recipient with respect to aggregated usage data;

(7) be accompanied by a list of all meters associated with the covered usage data, including, but not limited to, aggregated usage data, and shall be accompanied by any other information the Commission deems necessary including for data quality assurance; and

(8) be provided at no cost to the data recipient.

(h) The Commission shall direct that covered usage data shall be delivered to the data recipient in the following formats and timelines:

(1) No later than 100 days after the effective date of this Act, a large qualified utility shall provide data requested by a data recipient using a spreadsheet in a standard format consistent with the benchmarking tool. No later than 2 years after effective date of this Act, a large qualified utility shall provide requested data by direct upload to the data recipient's benchmarking tool, or, at the data recipient's request, send the data using a spreadsheet in a standard format consistent with the benchmarking tool.

(2) No later than 200 days after the effective date of this Act, a medium qualified utility shall provide data requested by a data recipient using a spreadsheet in a standard format consistent with the benchmarking tool. No later than 2 years after first receiving a request for aggregated usage data, a medium qualified utility shall provide the data by direct upload to the data recipient's benchmarking tool account, or, at the data recipient's request, send the data using a spreadsheet in a standard format consistent with the benchmarking tool.

(3) No later than 300 days after the effective date of this Act, a small qualified utility shall provide data requested by a data recipient using a spreadsheet in a standard format consistent with the benchmarking tool at the data recipient's request.

(i) To ensure the validity and usefulness of covered usage data, the utility shall provide the best available consumption and other information, consistent with the utility's records as presented to the account holder on the utility's customer portal and on the account holder's bills.

(j) One year after the effective date of this Act, the Commission shall establish by rule procedures for a data recipient to request and receive timely revisions correcting erroneous covered usage data.

(k) Once covered usage data has been entered into the benchmarking tool, such data may not be deleted or altered by a utility system, except as is necessary to correct errors or reflect rebills. If previously provided covered usage data is changed to correct errors, notification must be provided to the data recipient.

(l) Within 90 days of the effective date of this Act, the Commission shall adopt a standard form for a utility account holder to authorize the sharing of the utility account holder's covered usage data.

(m) For properties that do not meet the aggregation threshold and therefore require account holder authorization, the utility shall provide covered usage data to data recipients upon account holder authorization, which:

(1) may be provided in Commission-approved form;

(2) may be provided in a lease agreement provision; and

(3) remains valid until the account holder revokes it, regardless of how the authorization is provided.

(n) The utility shall provide to a data recipient unaggregated data regarding usage by an account holder that has vacated the property unless the account holder has explicitly notified the utility that the account holder forbids the sharing of such data.

(o) A qualified account holder shall not be entitled to forbid the sharing of aggregated usage data with a qualified data recipient except upon a showing that aggregation of data would present a proximate and foreseeable threat to national security and where each showing is deemed credible by the Commission.

(p) Access to covered usage data under this Section shall be subject to any rules the Commission has adopted or may choose to adopt, if the rules do not conflict with this Section.

(q) Except in cases where the utility has not followed processes established by this Act or the utility is grossly negligent, the utility shall be held harmless for third-party misuse of data shared under this Act and no cause of action may be initiated against the utility for such subsequent misuse.

(r) Prior to filing for cost recovery, a qualified utility must first demonstrate good faith efforts to secure federal, State, or other relevant funding options. Thereafter, a qualified utility may file for cost recovery of the reasonable and prudently-incurred costs of providing covered usage data, including establishing, operating, and maintaining data aggregation and data access services, for the Commission to evaluate.

(s) To carry out its responsibilities under this Act, the Commission shall be allocated additional annual funds. In performing its responsibilities under this Act, the Commission may select and engage outside consultants with experience in benchmarking and utility data access.

(t) A utility shall provide all necessary data points for a qualified data recipient to comply with reporting requirements to which the qualified data recipient is subject, including any such data that the utility possesses.