The Green Button Alliance’s 2019 Annual General Meeting to be held at CS Week

The Green Button Alliance’s Annual General Meeting will gather digital utilities, energy-efficiency innovators, governmental agencies, research institutes, and affiliate organizations interested in learning about the latest on the industry’s Green Button energy data-access and secure data-sharing standard.

GBA members and non-members are invited to attend the 1-hour face-to-face meeting being held at CS Week in Phoenix, Arizona, on Wednesday, 10 April, from 8:30-9:30 am MST (arrive at 8:15 to meet everyone).

Those that are unable to attend in-person may participate remotely; RSVP either way. 

The meeting will address:

• Green Button 2018 Accomplishments
• Green Button Connect My Data Technical Update
• Green Button 2019 & Look Ahead

RSVP to participate in the GBA’s Annual General Meeting — whether you’re attending in-person, or via web/dial-in. 

https://www.evite.com/event/0220D53JEYEWAAWNYEPJI5JU4KF2UY/rsvp 

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.

UtilityAPI Gains Green Button CMD and DMD Certifications!

Green Button Alliance member UtilityAPI is the first U.S. company to achieve Green Button Connect My Data (CMD) certification through the GBA's recently launched CMD testing program.

UtilityAPI also received certification for Green Button Download My Data (DMD).  UtilityAPI's EE/DER Engagement Platform now features its newly certified Data Exchange Platform that leverages Green Button data and CMD protocols to offer third-party access and secure sharing of data with complete customer authorization and control.

Through the Green Button Alliance's testing program, UL confirmed UtilityAPI's platform meets both the Green Button CMD and DMD Certification requirements.  UtilityAPI is now assured its "Green Button Certified CMD" utility platform will seamlessly and securely provide access to customer energy-usage data; with solutions that are positioned to work with third-party offerings supporting the Green Button data and protocol format.

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.

05 September: ZOME Energy Networks announced its free cloud-based energy program “ZOMEHOME” to further a household’s ability to reduce energy consumption with industry-standard smart home equipment.

30 August: "Nest and OhmConnect Partner to Bring Grid-Responsive Smart Thermostats to Scale" by Jeff St. John, Greentech Media.

29 August: The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) released its "PowerForward" report - a roadmap to Ohio's electricity future.

28 August: The U.S. Department of Energy's Better Buildings Home Energy Information Accelerator released a new toolkit: "Bringing Home Energy Information to Real Estate".

12 August: "Innovator's Spotlight: Wexus Technologies, Empowering Farmers with Data-Driven Insights" by Leanna Sweha, for The Vine blog.

07 August: "Artificial Intelligence-based Data Monitoring Helps ETS Clients Control Energy Costs", by Steve Lubetkin, GlobeSt.com. Article includes podcast interview with Jeff Hendler, CEO, Logical Buildings (formerly ETS).

07 August: Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative is now taking nominations for its "2018 Best Practices Awards" to be presented at its 2019 Consumer Symposium on 04 February 2019.

27 July: "Interview with David Havyatt, Architect of Australia's Consumer Data Right" by Michael Murray, Mission:data Coalition.

Did You Know?

The Green Button Standard Ensures Customer Privacy & Secure Transmission of Energy Data

The Green Button standard is designed to enable utility customers to easily access and securely share their electricity, natural gas, and water-usage information in a consistent format. The standard also ensures the energy-usage information data stream does not contain any Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and must be transmitted using a secure-transmission process thus paving the way for utilities to meet requirements for customer privacy set forth in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for the European Union as well as the principles outlined in the U.S. Department of Energy's voluntary DataGuard Energy Data Privacy Program.

• The Green Button standard’s Retail Customer schema function requires utilities to transmit PII in a separate, secured transmission apart from the data stream used to transmit a customer’s energy-usage information and it requires the receiving application to logically connect the two, separate data streams.
• The Retail Customer data stream transmission also must be authorized by the utility’s customer.
• Green Button’s Retail Customer schema enables utilities to protect customers’ PII while allowing them to meet regulators’ and third party non-energy information requirements.

The Green Button Alliance & the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative jointly hosted a webinar explaining the DataGuard Energy Data Privacy Program of the U.S. Department of Energy, with the leader of the program as a speaker and UtilityAPI explaining what their adoption of the program has meant to them.  View the recorded webinar to learn more. 

John Gurski, founder & CEO of GBA Participating Member company Energy Toolbase is awarded with a spot on Renewable Energy World’s inaugural “Solar 40 Under 40” list at Intersolar; highlighting leaders under the age of 40 in the solar industry: 

https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2018/07/renewable-energy-world-announces-its-inaugural-solar-40-under-40.html

"Texas Smart Meter Settlement Could Grow Market for Energy Products," by Robert Walton, Utility Dive, notes that Texas regulators have approved recommendations to improve and streamline the state's smart meter data portal, including standardizing data transfers to be more in line with the Green Button Connect My Data standard.  Recommended reading: "Texas Decision Enhances Customer Choice of Enhanced Energy Providers" by Michael Murray, Mission:data Coalition.

"Survey: Solar Companies Want Software to Speed Growth, Manage Utility Rates," by Julia Pyper, Greentech Media.  Survey finds access to standardized Green Button energy usage data is a priority for solar software market and and also notes GBA members Energy Toolbase and UtilityAPI as popular software platforms.

"KWHCoin Aims to Build an Advanced Energy Economy that Connects Us All," by Tech Company News.  Interview with GBA member Girard Newkirk, CEO of GBA Member company: KWHCoin, regarding KWHCoin technology, partnerships and vision.

"NEM's 21st Annual Restructuring Conference Focuses on Next Phase of Consumer Choice Innovation and Opportunities in Energy Markets," Jeff Hendler, CEO of GBA member company: ETS - Energy Technology Savings, spoke at the Washington D.C. conference and discussed the importance of consumer access to consumption and demand data to enable consumer decisions to reduce energy costs and achieve clean energy goals.

"Snugg Home's Snugg Pro Adds Support for Green Button," discusses benefits of standardized Green Button energy data and how it speeds the home energy auditing process, with a two-minute demo.

"Access to Data: Bridging the Electricity Grid Into the Information Age" by Coley Girouard, Advanced Energy Economy (AEE).  Green Button standard noted as leading standard for utility data exchange.

Washington D.C. council members introduced the "Distributed Energy Resources Act of 2018" to modernize the District of Columbia's energy grid.  The new DER Authority would house real-time energy use data in a central location and create a marketplace for D.C. businesses and residents to contribute renewable energy toward the District's energy supply.

Energy Consumers Australia's "Consumer Access to Energy Data" response to government consultations on implementing Australia's Consumer Data Right for energy; Green Button Connect My Data noted.

"Opinion: Giving Ohio Electric Consumers More Control Over Their Usage Benefits the Industry and the Environment" by J.D. Burrows, ENGIE Resources.

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. 

GBA's 2018 Annual Members Meeting & Breakfast

The GBA's Annual Members Meeting & Breakfast will be held on 24 January at the historic Menger Hotel in San Antonio, Texas to coincide with DistribuTECH 2018. The Members Meeting & Breakfast will be sponsored by board member / Participating Member company Think Energy. Learn how far the Green Button Alliance has come in three years and what's next for standards-based Green Button energy usage data, implementations and applications internationally. Members & interested non-members welcome, RSVP here.

GBA at DistribuTECH 2018

The Green Button Alliance is sponsoring a member-oriented booth at DistribuTECH 2018, 23-25 January in San Antonio, Texas. The GBA booth (#3247) is a 10x20 space located in the main exhibition hall of the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. If your company is interested in sponsorship opportunities and participating in the booth, please contact Jeremy J. Roberts, General Manager, Green Button Alliance at [email protected] for more details.

Advocacy group, Mission:data announced that utility Xcel Energy will Bring Smart Meters and Green Button Connect My Data to Colorado.

The Green Button standard is featured in the article “How Focused Data Use Analysis Leads to Energy Efficiency” by Klaar De Schepper in this June 2017’s issue of Buildings Operating Management magazine.

Green Button Alliance member the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative’s (SGCC) consumer education site features a page dedicated to educating consumers about their Green Button data.

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 Green Button Alliance was a supporter of the 2nd Annual Grid Modernization Forum held on 3-5 April 2017 in Chicago. Alliance members Mimi Zhang of Silver Spring Networks and Kevin Bricknell of Exelon Corporation's Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) subsidiary, participated in the event. Mimi Zhang joined speakers from DataCapable, Alliant Energy, and Open Energy Solutions on the Session 3 panel: "IOT and Big Data Analytics for New Business Models and Operational Excellence." The value of interoperability, collaboration, and the future of the smart grid was also discussed. Kevin Bricknell presented during Session 10: "Better Programs, Better Performance, with Customer and Grid Data Analytics" educating the audience about new and innovative smart grid programs and pilots that are helping to create a utility of the future. He highlighted new customer programs including Green Button Connect My Data, which ComEd is implementing to help its customers make informed decisions about managing their electricity consumption.