PUC Grants Staff’s Request for Extension to File Proposed DER Data Access Rules

On October 21, 2026 the Commission issued an order granting Staff’s request for extension of time to file proposed regulations regarding DER data access plan.

Previously, the Maryland PSC issued an order accepting, with modifications, SMECO’s DER data access plan.

Among other things the Maryland PSC:

(1) authorized SMECO to implement its portal “as an interim measure that should later conform to the Workgroup’s recommendations”;

(2) approved the proposal for quarterly updates, directing SMECO to “where feasible, report DER power ratings in kW or MW, include energy capacity in kWh or MWh when applicable, [and] evaluate the feasibility of feeder and substation identifiers”;

(3) adopted “the recommendation to limit private-sector access to licensed” DER aggregators (DERAs);

(4) adopted Staff’s recommendation of “allowing customers to prevent disclosure to private DERAs while maintaining a complete, confidential registry for authorized government entities, whether through separate products or role-based access”; and

(5) directed SMECO to make a supplemental filing “concerning what interval and performance data will be made available.”

As background, this proceeding houses the activities of the Data Exchange Work Group (DEWG) established in Docket No. 9778. DEWG is primarily tasked with the implementation of a data exchange platform compliant with Green Button Connect (GBC) to support third-party access to customer data for customer choice, virtual power plant (VPP) aggregations, and other potential uses. DEWG is also directed to scope the potential integration of a central, public-facing distributed energy resource (DER) registry with the GBC-compliant platform.