Who owns your energy data?  In California, the customer does.  The California Public Utility Commission is currently determining how PG&E can release that data to 3rd parties and still respect customer privacy.¹  This will be key to enabling real-time monitoring of energy consumption.  In this interview, Andrew Tang of PG&E addresses this topic, as well as the seeming contradiction between California's tiered rate structure and the coming wave of electric vehicles.  He talks about the challenges the grid faces with the on-going electrification of the transportation system.  

Note, this is part 2 of a two-part interview (part 1 can be found here) that was recorded as part of Parks 2011 Smart Energy Summit.

¹Summarized on page 7 of the CPUC's 2010 Report to the Governor & the Legislature on Smart Grid Plans and Recommendations, 

"….The Commission, however, did set three policy objectives in the area of customer and third party access to information and prices:

• Provide retail and wholesale prices to customers by the end of 2010; 
• Allow authorized third parties to access customer data by the end of 2010; and 
• Provide those customers with an advanced meter, access to their usage in near real time by the end of 2011. 

The Commission directed that further investigation was required in order to create rules surrounding customer access, privacy and security before authorizing third party access."