The Green Button Alliance, through its comprehensive Green Button Testing and Certification program, has tested and certified several new utility-provided energy data exchange platforms in the United States and Canada as compliant to the North American Energy Standards Board’s (NAESB) Retail Energy Quadrant Book 21 (REQ.21) Energy Services Provider Interface (ESPI) Model Business Practices standard, version 3.3, commonly known as the Green Button standard.

Published by NAESB in January 2020, version 3.3 of the Green Button standard includes the structure and definitions for Personally Identifiable Information (PII); revised structure and definitions for Energy Usage Information (EUI); updated security requirements; and a simplified customer authorization process. To ensure secure sharing of PII data, the Retail Customer (RC) schema of the standard enables those data from a customer's account to be carried in a single stream with a separate, parallel EUI stream linking specific meters to the PII data.

   
To ensure the Green Button standard is implemented correctly—and the numerous key benefits of the standard are gained by utilities, customers and third-parties—regulators are increasingly calling for Green Button implementations to be tested and certified by the GBA as compliant to the standard. For example, as part of Ontario’s Regulation 633/21: Energy Data, energy providers province-wide must implement Green Button Connect My Data (CMD) and Download My Data (DMD) solutions – and certify the solutions through the GBA by 01 November, 2023.

Utilities interested in providing Green Button standards-based energy data exchange platforms should obtain the latest version of the standard, version 3.3, from NAESB prior to solution testing by the Green Button Alliance. Utilities offering Green Button solutions can pre-test their files for free using the GBA’s Download My Data Validator prior to applying for Green Button Certified testing.

In Ontario, Canada, the government has passed Ontario Regulation 633/21: Energy Data, filing the regulation on 02 September.  Ontario’s new energy data regulation will go into effect on 01 November 2021 and requires electric and natural gas utilities across the province to implement Green Button Connect My Data (CMD) and Download My Data (DMD) energy data access and sharing solutions that adhere to the North American Energy Standards Board’s (NAESB) REQ.21 Energy Services Provider Interface (ESPI) version 3.3 standard, commonly known as the “Green Button,” by 01 November 2023.  Read the GBA’s announcement.

The Green Button Alliance welcomes new member the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB). Jonathan Booe, executive vice president and chief administrative officer of NAESB will serve on the Green Button Alliance's board of directors. The Green Button Download My Data (DMD) and Connect My Data (CMD) standards are based on NAESB's Energy Services Provider Interface (ESPI) standard (REQ. 21). The GBA's executive and technical staff is working closely with NAESB to publish the next version of the standard.

The Green Button Alliance welcomes the Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA), a leading international organization that promotes advanced technologies in homes and buildings as an Affiliate Member. In a reciprocal membership agreement, the GBA has also joined CABA. As a member of CABA, the GBA will work to promote the adoption of the Green Button standard in integrated home systems and the building automation industry.

UtilityAPI, an enterprise software company that provides solar, storage and energy management professionals with simple access to energy usage data, has been selected to receive a $760,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's SunShot Initiative. UtilityAPI will use the capital to build more data connections to utilities and further expand the geographical footprint of the company's API service.

On November 16th, at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator's (LACI) new La Kretz Innovation Center, representatives from green technology companies, including Chai Energy's CTO Ka Suen, were part of a roundtable discussion with Vice President Joe Biden and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. The group discussed building a more sustainable future, and Suen noted how Chai Energy empowers customers to save energy: “Here at Chai Energy we are trying to change how people view their electricity bills, what we provide is a real-time data stream that homeowners can directly access on their phone anytime, anywhere and view exactly how much energy they are using and when they are using it,” said Suen.