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.

July 5th: “London Hydro First Utility to Satisfy Ontario’s Green Button Regulation”

July 5th: “ERTH Power’s New Green Button Connector Tool Certified as Compliant to NAESB’s ESPI v.3.3”

June 29th: “Cleartrace Raises $20 Million Financing Led by ClearSky with Strategic Funding from Brookfield Renewable, EDF Energy North American, Tenaska, and Exelon to Help Companies Reach Decarbonization Goals”

June 9th “OhmConnect Raises $55M to Enlist More Homes to Prevent Blackouts”

May 19th “National Grid's Data Access Platform Certified as Green Button Compliant”

April 7th Amendments to Electricity Act, Public Utilities Act

March 17th “Con Edison Customer Receive Cash Payment for Saving Energy with the GridRewards App”

25 October: "Green Button Advances in Ontario," Smart Energy International.

25 October: "Utility Spending on Smart Meter Analytics to Triple Through 2030," Smart Energy International.

21 October: "NYSERDA Announces Selection of Program Manager and Utility Data Advisor to Develop Integrated Energy Data Resource," NYSERDA press release.

19 October: "New Regulation Requires Ontario Utilities to Adopt 'Green Button'," PowerGrid International.

13 October: "DOE Awards NARUC $14.2 Million to Train State Utility Regulators," Daily Energy Insider.

30 September: "The Pitch from Oakland Start-up OhmConnect? Save Energy and Get Paid For It," San Francisco Business Journal.

29 September: "Utilismart's Big Data Analytics Just Got a Little 'Greener'," Electricity Distributors Association (EDA) blog.

27 September: "New 24/7 Carbon Free Energy Compact Encourages Businesses to Decarbonize," Environment + Energy Leader. ClearTrace, a founding signatory.

20 September: "ENGIE Launches Ellipse, World's Most Comprehensive Carbon Intelligence Platform," ENGIE North America press release.

17 September: "Deadline Set for Energy-Use Data Availability," REMI Network.

15 September: "Ontario Pilot Program Tests Future of Advanced Hybrid Heating - London Hydro and Enbridge Tout Energy Efficiency and Carbon Reduction," Enbridge news post.

07 July: "Energyworx Announces $6M Investment Led by Eneco Ventures," Energyworx press release.

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.

13 July: "Revel Turns to Software to Keep its e-Moped Fleet Powered without Straining NYC's Grid," TechCrunch. Logical Buildings’ GridRewards featured.

06 July: "New Zealand Government Agrees to Establish a Consumer Data Right," New Zealand Government press release.

29 June: "Consumers Satisfied with Smart Home Devices, But Data Privacy Concerns Linger," Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative press release.

23 June: "'A More Sustainable and Equitable Society': Enbridge Releases 20th Annual Sustainability Report," CSRWire. Enbridge featured.

21 June: "AES Ohio Secure Green Light for $249M Smart Grid Project," Smart Energy International.

15 June: "OhmConnect Bets $100M That Free Smart Thermostats Can Prevent Summer Blackouts in California," Canary Media. OhmConnect featured.

27 May: "Essential Information About Energy Usage in the State is Elusive, and That's a Costly Problem," New Hampshire Bulletin. New Hampshire statewide energy data access platform.

25 May: "25 Years - A Story of Evolution - 2011-2015", Smart Energy International. Green Button Initiative featured in timeline of significant industry evolution markers, launch profiled in the 04/2012 issue of SEI.

19 May: "California Mayors Partner with OhmConnect to Prevent Blackouts this Summer," OhmConnect press release.

14 May: "London Hydro Customers Participate in EV Charging Pilot," Canadian AutoWorld. Green Button Connect My Data platform.

03 May: "For the Business World, Carbon is starting to Hit Where It Hurts," GreenBiz, by Lincoln Peyton, ClearTrace.

26 April: "New York Regulators Address Data Access Issues In Bid to Grow Clean Energy Development," UtilityDive. Green Button Connect My Data platform.

16 April: "Unlocking Ontario's Energy Data - Rodan Energy Welcomes Ontario's Green Button Announcement," Rodan Energy press release. Green Button Initiative.

15 April: "PSC Further Strengthens Safe and Fair Access to Data to Meet New York's Clean Energy Goals," New York State Public Service Commission press release.

Green Button Alliance Announces Results of 2021 Board of Directors Election

The Green Button Alliance concluded its sixth annual Board of Directors election and is pleased to announce the addition of its new board members:

• James “Jay” Lewis, CEO, Big Data Energy Services was elected to serve in a two-year seat;
• Jeff Hendler, CEO, Logical Buildings was elected to a one-year seat and
• John Anderson, Director of Energy Markets, OhmConnect was re-elected to another one-year term.

In addition, on 12 January, Officers of the board…

• Syed Mir, London Hydro (GBA Chair),
• Daniel Roesler, UtilityAPI (GBA Vice-Chair), and
• John Anderson, OhmConnect (GBA Secretary)

13 January: "ENGIE North America Adds Nearly 2 GW of Renewable Energy in the U.S. in 2020," ENGIE North America press release.

13 January: "CTA Announces 2021 Smart Home Division Mark of Excellence Award Winners," CE Pro. “Energy Efficiency Product of the Year” - Logical Buildings, GridRewards.

08 January: "New Jersey Approves PSE&G's $778 Smart Meter Rollout," Greentech Media. Approval comes with regulator demand for energy data sharing.

31 December: "Top 10 Utility Regulation Trends of 2020," Greentech Media. #10 [Energy] Data Platforms Take Shape.

16 December: "Energy Department Announces $45 Million in Funding for Solar Technologies," U.S. Department of Energy post.

16 December: "Op-Ed: Smart Energy is Smart Policy," NJ Spotlight News.

14 December: "S&P Global Platts Names ENGIE 'Energy Company of the Year'," ENGIE Resources blog post.

07 December: "Companies Announce New Residential VPP for California," Power Magazine, OhmConnect.

03 December: "Fort Collins Utilities Launches MyData, Powered By UtilityAPI," UtilityAPI blog post.

02 December: "PUC Approves CUBs Petition for Open Data Access Standards," Minnesota Citizens Utility Board (CUB) blog post.

10 November: "Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Startup Spotlight: Virimodo," Alabama NewsCenter, Virimodo.

27 October: "London Hydro Builds on Past Success to Launch New Pilot," London Hydro Press Release.

09 September: "EnerWisely Confirms Energy Star Partnership for Energy Efficiency," EnerWisely press release.

19 August: "RE100 Leadership Awards Shortlist: Companies Going Above and Beyond on Clean Energy," The Climate Group post. ENGIE a headline partner.

19 August: "OhmConnect Paid Users Over $300,000 to Respond to CAISO's Flex Alert in California," OhmConnect press release.

06 August: "Study: Home Energy Ratings in Real Estate Listings Would Steer Buyers to Efficient Choices," ACEEE press release.

23 July: "Canada Invests in Smart Grid Technologies for London Net-Zero Energy Community," Natural Resources Canada press release. Investment in London Hydro.

22 July: "New Yorkers Who Cut Power Use During HeatWave Get ConEd Payout," Bloomberg. Logical Buildings.

22 July: "PUC Advances CUB Framework to Enable Energy Data to Be Used in Public Interest," Citizens Utility Board (CUB) Minnesota post.

10 June: "Washington DC Grid Modernisation Programme Approved," Smart Energy International. Green Button Connect My Data.

09 June: "DC to Investigate Distributed Resource Ownership Issues as Part of Grid Modernization Effort," UtilityDive. Green Button Connect My Data.

13 September: "Pason Power, Energy Toolbase Merge to Create Comprehensive Energy Storage Platform," Solar Power World.
11 September: "EPA Recognizes Green Energy Solutions for Leading Green Power Use," Green Energy Solutions press release.
04 September: "London Hydro Sees Revenue Promise in Data-Crunching," London Free Press.
16 August: "BGE Named Among Nation's Utilities Most Trusted by Business Customers," Energy Central.
06 August: "NYSERDA, Con Edison to Launch Program to Award Providers for Energy Efficiency Upgrades," Daily Energy Insider.
06 August: "CUB Petitions PUC to Unleash Consumer Energy Data in Public Interest," CUB Minnesota Blog.
25 July: "NCS Pushes the Envelope with UtilityAPI Partnership," NCS press release.
10 July: "Demand Response is Dead. Long Live Flexiwatts!" OhmConnect Opinion article, Utility Dive.
03 June: "KERI Invites Japan's Power-Related Institutions to Seek Bilateral Cooperation," Korea IT Times.

29 January 2019: "ComEd's Smart Grid Starts to Pay Dividends in Northern Illinois", T&D World.

15 January 2019: "Software Solutions Help Installers Sell More Solar + Storage," Solar Power World. EnergyToolbase featured.

14 January 2019: "Energy Data Portability," Report by Mission:data Coalition; Green Button Connect My Data growth featured.

11 January 2019: "Con Edison Unveils Unique Residential Smart Energy Pilot," Smart Energy International.

10 January 2019: "Can Private Industry Solve Our Climate Crisis Where Governments Fail?", Forbes. OhmConnect featured.

07 January 2019: "ZOME Wins Best of Show, Launches New Products," ZOME press release.

01 January 2019: "Growing a Sustainable Food System: How Entrepreneurs Are Applying Advanced Technologies to Reinvent Our Approach to Food Security and Sustainability", Village Capital. Wexus Technologies featured.

05 September 2019: "CHEC and CustomerFirst Sign Advocacy Partnership Agreement", CustomerFirst news.

GBA Launches Green Button Connect My Data Certification Program

The Green Button Alliance announced the launch of its Green Button Connect My Data (CMD) Certification Program for electricity, natural gas, and water utilities (data custodians).

The availability of the Green Button CMD Certification Program comes at a key time for the industry as utilities look to provide proven, standards-based solutions for secure customer data-access and sharing. Green Button CMD certification will assure utilities their implementations are Green Button standards-compliant and will ensure customer privacy and the seamless and secure transmission of data to third-party solutions.

A GBA-founding member, UL Verification Services (UL), is a GBA-authorized test laboratory and conducts the ANSI-audited Green Button Certified CMD testing process. London Hydro's cloud-based energy service platform is the first utility implementation (.PDF) to be certified Green Button CMD standards-compliant by UL. The "Green Button Certified CMD" mark on London Hydro's site now assures the utility, its customers, and third-party solution providers, that London Hydro's implementation is standards-compliant and new data-driven services and applications will seamlessly and securely work-together, while ensuring customer privacy. Learn more about the Green Button Connect My Data standard and the Certification program and the benefits to utilities here (.PDF).

Utilities that have Green Button Connect My Data implementations, or are in process of developing CMD offerings, can apply for certification here.

An article about "How the Green Button Initiative Could Open Up a World of Innovation" by the Association of Power Producers of Ontario (APPrO).

Smart Meter Texas (SMT) settlement calls for streamlined customer authorization process and Green Button Connect My Data (CMD) API. Read more in the 06 February article: "Texas Takes a Big Step in Improving Access to Smart Meter Data" by Jeff St. John, Greentech Media.

"Consumer Platform of the Future" report, by Green Button Alliance member Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC), found that about half of U.S. energy consumers would probably or definitely use the "Platform," which was defined as an online energy resource that would combine energy usage data, user preference settings, real-time energy data, energy programs and offers, and use this information to help the user understand and manage home energy use.

Green Button Alliance member Energy Technology Savings (ETS) featured in article: "ETS Using Technology to Slash Multifamily Energy Costs" by Tom Bergeron, ROI-NJ.

GBA Members spoke at the SECC’s 2018 Consumer Symposium (The Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative is a GBA Affiliate Member organization).  Members of the Green Button Alliance, including the Ontario Ministry of Energy and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), participated on the “Enabling Consumers with Access, Choice and Control of their Energy Data” panel, moderated by Jeremy J. Roberts, General Manager, GBA at the Consumer Symposium: “Transforming the Customer Relationship.”

The Symposium was co-located with DistribuTECH and took-place at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas. 

This week, the CS Week 2017 conference is being held May 22-26 at the Fort Worth Convention Center in Texas.  The Green Button Alliance is pleased to note that several member companies were recognized with the prestigious “2017 CS Week Expanding Excellence” awards at the event.  The awards were presented to the winners and finalists on Wednesday, May 24th, during the opening general session of CS Week.

Exelon Corporation was named as a winner of the “Innovation in Digital Customer Engagement” award.

Baltimore Gas & Electric, an Exelon company, received a “Best Analytics Project” award with Pacific Gas & Electric receiving the runner-up in that category and level.

London Hydro (Ontario) won a “Best Mobility Implementation” award for their Interval Data Centre (IDC) innovation, which utilizes cloud-based infrastructure to provide Green Button energy-usage data via a powerful, mobile management application.  For more information about the Green Button solution, view the London Hydro video.

The Green Button Alliance congratulates its member companies for their outstanding achievements and industry recognition in receiving these awards!

Southern California Edison (SCE) has delivered electricity to Southern and Central California for more than 125 years and is one of the nation's largest utilities. SCE was one of the first utilities in the U.S. to make Green Button data available with the launch of its Green Button program in 2013. SCE's Green Button Download My Data offering enables its customers to securely download their own interval usage data directly to their computer from SCE's website. In 2015, SCE launched its Green Button Connect My Data program which gives customers the ability to automate the secure transfer of their own energy usage data to authorized third-parties, based on opt-in customer consent and control. In 2016, SCE enhanced its Connect My Data offering to include Billing, Meter, and Program Participation related data. To date, SCE has partnered with 13 third parties with approximately 11 additional vendors in process of testing. SCE's registered third-party vendors include demand-response providers, energy-management companies, solar companies, and others. SCE is proud to be a founding member of the Green Button Alliance and continues to promote its Green Button program among its customers and their designated business agents.

Top-performing electricity utilities from across Ontario, Canada, were honored at the industry's premier Awards Gala, hosted by the Electricity Distributors Association (EDA), on 27 March 2017. London Hydro, along with Festival Hydro and Whitby Hydro, received the Customer Service Excellence award for collaborating to enhance the utilities' online customer-engagement solutions including the launch of their Green Button platforms. The utilities successfully reduced their costs while providing customers with more service options online. London Hydro was also recognized with the Conservation Leadership Award at the event.

The Advanced Energy Centre (AEC) at MaRS Discovery District, this week announced a Memorandum of Understanding with the Mexican State of Jalisco Energy Agency. The AEC helps foster the adoption of innovative energy technologies in Canada and leverages those successes and experiences into international markets. The MOU commits to encouraging closer economic ties and strengthening beneficial relations between the regions, by working together to accelerate energy innovation in each respective jurisdiction. Using the AEC's systems change methodologies, the parties will collaboratively define opportunities and challenges facing the energy system and build a comprehensive strategy for achieving Jalisco's energy vision. The AEC will also provide the Energy Agency with curated access to innovative energy technologies, which can help the state achieve its vision. Read more here. 

Enel, this week launched its Enel Innovation Hub in partnership with the University of California Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and the Banatao Institute. The Hub, whose headquarters are located at the CITRIS Foundry Accelerator at UC Berkeley, is part of the international start-up network within the Enel Group that will select the best start-ups with which to develop joint business projects.

Commonwealth Edison (ComEd)—a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation, a Green Button Alliance sponsor member—recently announced the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) has approved a proposal by ComEd that allows companies and researchers access to anonymous energy usage data in order to enable the development of new products and services that will add value to Illinois energy customers. The new program will open access to unidentified interval energy usage data for all ZIP Codes where smart meters have been deployed by ComEd. ComEd's Anonymous Data offering builds upon the Green Button Initiative.