Dealing with data: A study on the regulatory challenges of data-driven innovation and data sharing in the digitalized utilities and how to deal with them

This dissertation is a study on the regulatory challenges created by the growing use and sharing of data in the utilities sector. With the growing availability of digital technologies such as sensors, smart metering, smart grids and data analytics techniques, infrastructure managers in the utilities sector can obtain very detailed data about the functioning of their assets and about the consumption of utilities such as drinking water and electricity. These data can be used by infrastructure managers to improve or develop new ways of designing their networks, pinpoint failures, predict the need for maintenance and other forms of data-driven innovation. Considering that utilities are highly regulated sectors that were not data-driven from the outset, it can be questioned whether existing regulatory frameworks governing those sectors are still fit-for purpose, or if changes are necessary to deal with the new opportunities and risks introduced by data-driven innovation. At the same time, the data collected by infrastructure managers can also be used by third parties to develop or improve products or services. Policymakers in the European Union have started to show interest in stimulating the sharing of these data, as illustrated by the Open Data Directive and the latest Electricity Directive. Next to these two instruments, multiple horizontal legislative measures have been proposed and adopted in recent years in the European Union to enable a single market for data, e.g., the General Data Protection Regulation, the Data Governance Act, and the upcoming Data Act. These horizontal legal frameworks apply to, but are not specifically designed for, the utilities sector. The resulting picture is quite complex: the sharing of data from the utilities sector is regulated by horizontal and sectoral legal frameworks with different policy objectives, levels of implementation and supervisory authorities. In addition, different regulatory regimes apply depending on the personal or non-personal nature of the data in question, and the public or private nature of data holders and receivers. Against this background, this dissertation investigates (by means of four separate, but strongly interconnected studies) the regulatory challenges that arise from the growing use and sharing of data collected by infrastructure managers in the utilities sector, as well as possible ways to deal with these challenges.