IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v15y2022i3p1088-d740106.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Legal Complexities of Processing and Protecting Personal Data in the Electricity Sector

Author

Listed:
  • Saskia Lavrijssen

    (Tilburg Law and Economics Center (TILEC) and Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology and Society (TILT), Tilburg Law School, Tilburg University, 5037 AB Tilburg, The Netherlands)

  • Brenda Espinosa Apráez

    (Tilburg Law and Economics Center (TILEC) and Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology and Society (TILT), Tilburg Law School, Tilburg University, 5037 AB Tilburg, The Netherlands)

  • Thijs ten Caten

    (Tilburg Law School, Tilburg University, 5037 AB Tilburg, The Netherlands)

Abstract

The use of smart meters enables the emergence of innovations in the electricity sector, such as smart grids, prosumers and Peer-to-Peer trading, which can play an important role in realizing the energy transition. These developments rely on the processing of personal data, triggering the application of data protection legislation in addition to the legislation organizing the electricity markets. This article examines the interaction between the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Directive (EU) 2019/944 on common rules for the internal market for electricity in the European Union, following the method of doctrinal legal research. Concretely, this article investigates what kinds of tensions may arise from the coexistence of these two legal regimes and whether there are mechanisms in place to prevent or mitigate such tensions. Three main tensions are identified. The first tension lies in the fact that some of the innovations facilitated by smart metering in the energy sector rely on technologies that might not be entirely compatible with the GDPR. A second tension follows from the existence of separate but interrelated regimes for access to data of the consumer/data subject in the two legal instruments here analysed. The third tension relates to a possible overlap of competences between the supervisory authorities of both regimes. This article is a contribution to the still scarce legal scholarship on the interplay between the GDPR the Recast Electricity Directive. The findings of this research are of interest not only for academics but also for practitioners, policymakers and supervisory authorities that have to deal with the issues here identified.

Suggested Citation

  • Saskia Lavrijssen & Brenda Espinosa Apráez & Thijs ten Caten, 2022. "The Legal Complexities of Processing and Protecting Personal Data in the Electricity Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-24, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:3:p:1088-:d:740106
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/3/1088/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/3/1088/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brenda Espinosa Apráez & Saskia Lavrijssen, 2018. "Exploring the regulatory challenges of a possible rollout of smart water meters in the Netherlands," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, , vol. 19(3-4), pages 159-179, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Marcel Antal & Vlad Mihailescu & Tudor Cioara & Ionut Anghel, 2022. "Blockchain-Based Distributed Federated Learning in Smart Grid," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(23), pages 1-19, November.
    2. Palacios-Garcia, Emilio J. & Carpent, Xavier & Bos, Joppe W. & Deconinck, Geert, 2022. "Efficient privacy-preserving aggregation for demand side management of residential loads," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Steven Hendrik Andreas Koop & Sharon Helena Pascale Clevers & Elisabeth Johanna Maria Blokker & Stijn Brouwer, 2021. "Public Attitudes towards Digital Water Meters for Households," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, June.
    2. Günter Müller-Czygan & Viktoriya Tarasyuk & Christian Wagner & Manuela Wimmer, 2021. "How Does Digitization Succeed in the Municipal Water Sector? The WaterExe4.0 Meta-Study Identifies Barriers as well as Success Factors, and Reveals Expectations for the Future," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-21, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:3:p:1088-:d:740106. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.