Bill targeting energy data project moves ahead

A cost-benefit analysis, filed in early January, concluded the project would most likely benefit New Hampshire’s utility customers in the short and long terms once it is implemented. (Photo by Dave Cummings/New Hampshire Bulletin)

A bill that could put the brakes on a technology project seven years in the making is headed to the governor’s desk.

On Thursday, the New Hampshire Senate voted to pass House Bill 723, which would end the requirement for Eversource, Liberty Utilities, and Unitil to collaborate on a central online hub for utility customer data. 

Debate on Thursday centered around whether the platform would be a cost or benefit to New Hampshire, with detractors saying it was too expensive to continue on the track toward implementation while proponents said the platform would save customers money on their utility bills.

New Hampshire utilities have already invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in the planning phase of the project. Meanwhile, a cost-benefit analysis, filed in early January, concluded the project would most likely benefit New Hampshire’s utility customers in the short and long terms once it is implemented. If HB 723 becomes law, however, it’s not clear whether the platform will come to fruition.

“If you don’t have control of your data, you can’t plan anything, you can’t save money. I mean, it would give us so many insights,” said Rep. Kat McGhee, ranking member of the House Science, Technology, and Energy committee and a Hollis Democrat who has worked on the platform project since its inception, in a Jan. 28 interview.

The long-running project began in 2019 with Senate Bill 284, “Establishing a statewide, multi-use online energy data platform.” The bill’s objective was to create an online home for address-by-address energy usage data for customers of New Hampshire’s three major utilities.

Proponents said at the time that energy usage data was scattered and inaccessible across the state. Assessing granular information about a household’s or community’s energy needs and usage trends is the best way to identify issues and boost efficiency, they said.

At the time, however, getting that kind of information required sifting through billing documents. Those behind the initial legislation described the proposed platform as a way to ease that process, unifying data from the three utilities at a single, all-in-one access point.

Customers could use the platform to access their own data, and choose to give permission to share it with third parties, such as consultants or energy management platforms that help control usage, according to planning documents submitted to the Public Utilities Commission. The plans also call for the development of security features to ensure that customer data is kept secure and not visible to unauthorized parties.

New Hampshire Consumer Advocate Don Kreis said in an interview the improvements the platform would enable would make the state’s grid more efficient, lowering costs for all users.

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Detractors, however, said the bill would be too expensive to bring to fruition. The investment from state utilities that would be required would result in a rate increase, burdening residents, municipalities, and state entities with the costs of implementation, said Sen. Howard Pearl, a Loudon Republican.

The utilities have already invested significantly in the project. Liberty, for example, has spent more than $250,000, according to spokesperson Alison Vai, while Eversource spokesperson William Hinkle said his company had spent about $400,000. 

Detractors also criticized slow progress on the project itself. Work on the energy data platform has been overseen by the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission in a docket that has run since 2019. 

McGhee said the docket had been held up at the Public Utilities Commission on several occasions that were outside the working group’s control. Kreis said he believed the New Hampshire Department of Energy did not favor the project, and had deliberately slowed the process to quietly kill it. At a hearing before the Public Utilities Commission on Jan. 8, New Hampshire Department of Energy lawyer Mary Schwarzer refuted that assertion.

Now, however, work on the preparatory phases of the project is complete, according to McGhee. On Jan. 6, the governance council behind the platform preparation work issued a cost-benefit analysis predicting that benefits to consumers would most likely outweigh costs initially, with the investment returning more to consumers the longer it was in use.

McGhee said she wanted the hearing process before the Public Utilities Commission, which had requested that cost-benefit report in 2022, to play out before the determination was made to cast aside the project. The Public Utilities Commission is currently tasked with determining whether the platform is cost-effective and in the public interest. 

Though HB 723 would remove the mandate for the utilities involved on the project to continue with its implementation, it does not preclude them from continuing on the project themselves.

Representatives from all three utilities declined to say whether they would continue with the project if HB 723 were to become law, removing their statutory obligation to do so.

“Unitil is supportive of initiatives that provide a cost benefit to our customers,” said spokesperson Amanda Vicinanzo in an email, and added that the company’s analysis had found that the platform would result in cost savings for consumers. But if HB 723 becomes law, she said, the company would “evaluate (its) options” regarding continued collaboration.

“I don’t think the utilities will have the moxie to move forward anyway, even though they could,” Kreis said. “And I don’t think the Public Utilities Commission will have the moxie to tell the utilities to do it anyway, even though it could.”

Kreis said the utilities would likely request to recoup the cost they have so far expended on the platform in a future rate case, even if the platform — and its benefits — are not realized.

Rep. Lex Berezhny, a Grafton Republican, is the prime sponsor of House Bill 723, which passed the House last year. Berezhny did not return two requests for comment sent via email.