Summary of S 3926: Digital Energy Management Tools Act

Overview

This bill, titled the "Digital Energy Management Tools Act," aims to promote competition and innovation in the area of digital energy management tools. The primary goals are to enhance consumer access to information about their electric energy and natural gas usage, and to enable the development and adoption of new products and services to help consumers, organizations, and governments better manage their energy usage and improve electric grid reliability.

Key Provisions

• Promoting Competition: The bill directs the Department of Energy to establish policies and regulations to foster competition in the digital energy management tools market. This includes ensuring non-discriminatory access to consumer energy usage data.

• Enhancing Consumer Access to Data: The bill requires electric and natural gas utilities to provide consumers with easy access to their historical energy usage data in a standardized, machine-readable format. This data must be available at no additional cost to the consumer.

• Supporting Innovation: The legislation allows for the development and adoption of innovative energy management products and services, including tools that provide personalized energy usage insights and recommendations. It also enables the testing of new technologies and business models through regulatory sandboxes.

• Improving Grid Reliability: The bill encourages the use of digital energy management tools to help consumers, organizations, and governments optimize their energy usage in ways that improve the reliability and resilience of the electric grid.

Affected Stakeholders

• Consumers: Residential, commercial, and industrial consumers of electricity and natural gas would benefit from increased access to their energy usage data and new tools to manage that usage.

• Utilities: Electric and natural gas utilities would be required to provide consumer data access and enable the development of new energy management products and services.

• Technology Providers: Companies developing digital energy management tools and services would have expanded market opportunities under the policies established by this bill.

• State/Local Governments: State and local governments could leverage new energy management technologies to improve the efficiency and reliability of public facilities and infrastructure.

Timeline and Next Steps

The bill was introduced in the Senate on February 26, 2026 and has been referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources for further consideration. If reported out of committee and passed by both chambers of Congress, it would then be sent to the President for signature or veto.