STAND. COM. REP. NO. 791

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1442

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2019

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism, to which was referred S.B. No. 1442 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Public Utilities Commission to consider the value of improving energy data access and transparency in order to make informed decisions.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Elemental Excelerator, Ulupono Initiative, O‘ahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, and one individual. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Public Utilities Commission.

Your Committees find that there is public interest in increasing transparency and improving access to all relevant energy-related data, whether services are provided by a regulated utility or a third-party services provider. Successfully reducing energy consumption requires individuals and businesses to understand their usage behaviors. By providing ratepayers with information concerning their energy consumption, they can make more informed decisions and manage their costs. This information also provides the State the opportunity to implement an open data environment that will help people make informed decisions regarding achieving the State's clean energy goals. This measure will improve energy data access and transparency in order to empower ratepayers, improve decision-making related to reliability and operational efficiency of the electric system, maximize the value of grid modernization technologies and investments, and promote innovation and economic development opportunities.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Clarifying that the Public Utilities Commission shall:

(A) Specifically consider the value of access to and transparency of electric power systems data, rather than energy data;

(B) Increase, rather than maximize, the amount of publicly-available data related to utility generation, transmission, and distribution systems; and

(C) Ensure that electric power systems data is made available through simple, electronic, consistent, machine-readable formats with temporal and geographic granularity; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1442, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1442, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism,

________________________________ GLENN WAKAI, Chair

________________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair