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Municipal Environmental Group - Water Division The Municipal Utility Customer Privacy Law, 2013 Act 25, was signed on July 5, 2013, and became effective on July 7, 2013. The new law -- Wis. Stat. 196.137 -- provides that municipal utilities may not release customer information to any person except: (1) with the consent of the customer, or (2) except to any of the following: (a) Agents, vendors, partners, or affiliates of the municipal utility that are engaged to perform any services or functions for or on behalf of the municipal utility. (b) Transmission and distribution utilities and operators within whose geographic service territory the customer is located. (c) The commission or any person whom the commission authorizes by order or rule to receive the customer information. (cm) An owner of a rental dwelling unit to whom the municipal utility provides notice of past-due charges pursuant to s. 66.0809(5). (d) Any person who is otherwise authorized by law to receive the customer information. "Customer information" is defined as any information received from customers which serves to identify customers individually by usage or account status. BACKGROUND. The bill was sought by the Municipal Electric Utilities of Wisconsin (MEUW), the state association representing the 82 municipal electric utilities in Wisconsin, and WPPI Energy, a nonprofit, municipally owned power supplier serving 41 municipally owned Wisconsin utilities. MEUW and WPPI noted that existing law related to the release of customer information by municipal electric utilities was unclear and potentially contradictory. While municipal utilities are subject to Wisconsins open records laws, PSC rules required that electric and gas utilities, including municipally owned electric utilities, not release any information received from individual customers which serves to identify them individually, by usage or status. While the PSC's prohibition might arguably protect the release of customer information from open records requests, the issue has not been addressed by the courts. This uncertainty led MEUW and WPPI to ask the Legislature to pass the Municipal Utility Customer Privacy Law in order to make it clear that municipal utility customer information is confidential and exempt from Wisconsin's open records law. NO OFFICIAL GUIDANCE AT THIS TIME. While the intent behind the new Municipal Utility Customer Privacy Law is understandable, municipal water utilities have raised questions about how to respond to the typical requests for information they receive. Because the law is new, no official guidance has been released by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin as of the date this article was written. However, the following suggestions (which do not constitute legal advice) have been provided to Municipal Environmental Group - Water Division (MEG - Water) members.
HANDLING TELEPHONE CALLS With regard to telephone calls, it is recommended that at a minimum the utility representative answering the call ask the caller to confirm that he or she is the customer. If possible, it would be a good idea for the utility representative to also document the contact, and the callers confirmation that he or she is the customer. This documentation could be used to provide a defense if the utility receives a complaint that customer information was provided to someone other than the customer as a result of a false representation from the caller. REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION FOR PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS With regard to real estate transactions, the person/entity handling the real estate closing (often a title company) will call the utility asking for the final read. It is recommended that the person/entity handling the real estate closing obtain the customers written consent for the utility to provide that information to the person/entity handling the real estate closing. The utility could prepare a consent form and make it available to nearby title companies, real estate brokers, etc. REQUESTS FOR TENANT-CUSTOMER INFORMATION FROM PROPERTY MANAGERS A utility is permitted to release a tenant-customer's information to the rental dwelling unit's owner if the utility would otherwise provide notice of past-due charges to the owner under Wis. Stat. 66.0809(5). Section 66.0809(5) applies if the owner of a rental dwelling unit notifies the utility in writing of the name and address of the tenant responsible for payment of the utility charges and the name address of the owner. If 66.0809(5) applies, the utility is permitted to provide the owner with customer information, such as payment status, from tenant-customers. A utility should consider how it will verify that the owner calling for tenant-customer information is the owner of the rental dwelling unit. One option may be for the owner to have a unique landlord number that must be provided to the utility before the utility will release tenant-customer information. UTILITY INFORMATION ON THE WEB If your utility provides customer information on its website, information available to the public should be limited to the average water consumption for the property/account for the prior 12-month period, or figures reflecting the highest and lowest consumption amounts for the previous 12 months. This is comparable to the information privatelyowned electric utilities are authorized to provide under Wis. Admin. Code, PSC 113.0501(5). If you allow customers to view their accounts and pay bills online, you should require that customers create a unique customer PIN number that must be used to access their account. PENALTIES FOR VIOLATION The new law itself does not provide a penalty for providing information to a non-customer, however, the general forfeiture statute applicable to public utilities would apply.
Wisconsin Statute 196.66 sets a forfeiture of no less than $25 nor more than $5,000 for a violation of applicable law. Any forfeiture action, however, would have to be brought by the Wisconsin Attorney General's Office or the District Attorney for the County in which the utility is located. State v. Wisconsin Bell, Inc., 211 Wis. 2d 751; 566 N.W.2d 496 (Ct. App. 1997).