Integrating increasing shares of renewable electricity generation within the European Union electricity market requires that the electricity system is capable of withstanding intermittency. One of the principal means of achieving this is by activating the demand side in such a way as to enable a more flexible balance between demand and supply. In practice, initiatives and technological solutions to activate the demand side are well exemplified by smart meters, which collect and communicate information on electricity consumption. The existing legal framework and the 2016 legislative proposals for the electricity sector recognise that significant opportunities exist to utilise consumer data collected via smart metering and that these are of fundamental importance in creating more flexibility in the electricity market. However, the extensive utilisation of this data also raises questions concerning data privacy and data protection. This article examines the interface between data protection and energy law in the EU. The focus of the legal analysis is on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the proposed rules contained in the Winter Package, which are systematically analysed to determine the conditions under which smart metering data can be utilised to further the objectives of EU energy law. The underlying argument of the article is that there is an apparent conflict between the objectives embedded in EU data protection law and those embedded in EU energy law. EU energy law addresses smart metering and the resulting data as means of achieving a more sustainable electricity system that benefits the final consumer. Conversely, EU data protection rules focus on the protection of a fundamental right and perceive the collection and processing of data as a risk to the very same consumer that is considered to benefit from smart metering data under EU energy law. This article demonstrates how this apparent conflict can be reconciled through interpretation of the relevant rules of EU law.

中文翻译：

---

在保持安全的同时变聪明？欧盟法律在智能计量和数据保护方面的进展

要在欧盟电力市场中整合不断增长的可再生能源发电份额，就需要电力系统能够承受间歇性影响。实现这一目标的主要手段之一是通过激活需求方，以便在需求和供应之间实现更加灵活的平衡。在实践中，激活电表需求的举措和技术解决方案以智能电表为例，智能电表收集并传达有关用电量的信息。现有的电力行业法律框架和2016年立法提案认识到，存在大量机会利用通过智能电表收集的消费者数据，这对于在电力市场中创造更大的灵活性至关重要。然而，这些数据的广泛使用也引发了有关数据隐私和数据保护的问题。本文研究了欧盟数据保护与能源法之间的关系。法律分析的重点是通用数据保护条例（GDPR）和“冬季计划”中包含的拟议规则，对这些规则进行了系统分析，以确定可以利用智能计量数据促进实现欧盟能源法目标的条件。该文章的基本论点是，欧盟数据保护法中嵌入的目标与欧盟能源法中嵌入的目标之间存在明显的冲突。欧盟能源法将智能计量及其产生的数据作为实现最终用户受益的更可持续的电力系统的手段。反过来，欧盟数据保护规则侧重于基本权利的保护，并将数据的收集和处理视为对同一消费者的风险，根据欧盟能源法，该消费者被视为受益于智能计量数据。本文展示了如何通过解释欧盟法律的相关规则来调和这种明显的冲突。