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On October 20, 2026, parties filed draft orders in the electric and gas utility data rulemaking.

As background, ICC initiated this rulemaking to implement §5-10 and 5-15 of the Utility Data Access Act (UDAA), SB25 of 2026. As amended on 6/26/26, the act requires that electric and natural gas utilities with more than 100,000 customers:

• retain all usage data for at least five years and, until that time, not delete or alter data that has been provided to a qualified recipient except to correct errors or reflect rebills;
• provide covered usage data to any entity authorized by an account holder upon authorized request;
• provide aggregated usage data upon request by the owner of a multi-meter building or property or their authorized agent;
• establish a tool or process to enable data requests;
• provide updates or corrections to previously provided usage information;
• respond to initial data requests within 30 days;
• provide requested data on at least a monthly schedule, to be set by ICC, until the recipient revokes the request or is no longer qualified to receive the data; and
• not charge for provision of usage data.

Selected party comments are highlighted below.

(1) Mission:data: (i) said that “The UDAA mandates online, web-based authorizations,” and argued that “submission via e-mail of a downloadable form… will not satisfy” the UDAA or conform to industry best practices; and (ii) recommended ICC “update the [24 month] prospective authorization period included in the standard authorization form,” arguing that, under the UDAA, authorization “remains valid until the account holder revokes it, regardless of how the authorization is provided”; and

(2) AG: (i) argued that “consumers should be able to choose the purpose for which they are disclosing their data… with a dropdown menu of options in the web-based form and a list of options for the customer to choose/check on the PDF/paper version”; (ii) recommended that the form “prevent third party vendors from ‘sharing’,” not just selling or licensing, “data with any other person, party, vendor, or entity for any purpose”; and (iii) recommended that “customers that select to enroll in ongoing data sharing should be sent annual reminders.”

On October 16, 2026 the transcript of September 29, 2026 hearing were published.

Previously, Staff circulated draft rules and held discussions of the law with stakeholders across several meetings of the Data Access Working Group (DAWG). In addition to codifying the above requirements, Staff proposes that utilities must: (1) have a secure and convenient online portal for account holder data requests and deliveries; and (2) not require identity validation more onerous than current utility practice.