By MEGHAN BLONDER | WASHINGTON FREE BEACON
A green energy advocacy group in Alaska is demanding a local utility provider fork over its consumers’ private energy consumption data. The group wants to use that data to craft a new pricing plan that could penalize those who exceed a certain level of energy consumption, says a report from the Washington Free Beacon.
Renewable Energy Alaska Project (REAP), an Anchorage-based nonprofit that works to secure “Alaska’s clean energy future,” petitioned state regulators last month in an attempt to compel the Chugach Electric Association to provide each of its customers’ monthly energy consumption data.
REAP says it needs that data to design a rate structure that would compel customers to use less natural gas—by charging them more once they surpass certain energy consumption thresholds, the Free Beacon reports.
Chugach, Alaska’s largest electric utility, is refusing to hand over the data, citing privacy concerns. But if REAP convinces Alaska’s regulatory commission to rule in its favor, the company won’t have a say. Such a decision would effectively force Chugach to give the green energy group the actual electricity consumption habits of virtually every resident and business in Anchorage.
REAP Executive Director Chris Rose told the publication, “We don’t want the data to leak out. We respect the privacy concerns of individual customers. “But we need that data in order to develop rate design.”
REAP submitted a motion to Alaska’s regulatory commission that called the utility company’s privacy concerns “exaggerated.”
Read more of this news report at the Washington Free Beacon.
