The Green Button Alliance offers the industry’s only Green Button Connect My Data® (CMD) and Green Button Download My Data® (DMD) Testing Programs for electricity, natural gas, and water utilities (“data custodians”).  The Green Button Alliance (GBA) administers the Green Button Testing Program and can help utilities prepare their implementations for testing and standards compliance.

Testing is performed remotely, online, and takes just a few hours.  Once a data custodian’s implementation has been tested and shown to be Green Button standards-compliant, the GBA issues the Green Button DMD or CMD testing mark denoting compliance to the standard.

Certification Marks

Note:  Use of the words “Green Button Certified” and/or the associated marks and/or Certified Word Marks, is restricted to use on advertising for those conforming products and implementations certified by the Green Button Alliance testing program.  No use of language which includes the word, mark, or logo in connection with nonconforming implementations is allowed.

The use of any term such as “Green Button Certified” (regardless of language, capitalization, and hyphenation) may not be used at any time without the appropriate DMD, CMD, Download My Data, or Connect My Data addition, either to describe conforming or nonconforming implementations.  The use of any terms such as, “Green Button Alliance compliant”, “Green Button Alliance compatible”, or “Green Button Alliance conforming” (regardless of language, capitalization, and hyphenation) may not be used at any time, either to describe conforming or nonconforming implementations.  These prohibitions apply to all online presence, packaging, or collateral and advertising material related to conforming and nonconforming implementations. 

Use of any Green Button logos, marks, or trademarked terms require the signing of a Green Button Logo License Agreement by GBA Members and/or those undergoing Green Button Testing and further require compliance with the Green Button Certified Marks Style Guide.  Certification alone dictates whether or not the Certified Word Marks, may be used. 

Please see the Green Button Certified Marks Style Guide for more information on the usage of trademarks:

Green Button Certified Marks Style Guide [.pdf]

Before you get tested, be sure you are using the latest version of the standard that serves as the basis of the Green Button ecosystem.

On 2019-04-08, the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) ratified the enhancements to the Energy Service Provider Interface (ESPI) Retail Energy Quadrant Book 21 (REQ.21) standard… “The Green Button Standard”:

• Replaced OAuth 1.0 with OAuth 2.0 for “Confidential Clients”
• Updated security requirements to TLS 1.2 as a minimum
• Revised the Energy Usage Information (EUI) data structure and definitions
• Created the Retail Customer (PII) data structure and definitions
• Deprecated original Use Cases that do not meet OAuth 2.0 data security requirements
• Added Use Case for Download My Data (DMD)
• Simplified Use Case 2: “Customer Authorization process”
• Documented Standard ESPI Application Program Interface (API) formats

Green Button Connect My Data (CMD) is the industry standard for accessing and securely sharing energy- and water-usage data.  Utilities developing customer data access-and-sharing implementations can now obtain the Green Button CMD mark to show that their implementation is Green Button standards-compliant and that it will enable secure customer data-access; the customer-authorized automatic and secure transmission of data to third-party solutions; and will ensure customer privacy.  Green Button Testing verifies for the utility, its customers, and third-party solution providers, that the standard has been properly implemented.  Testing also speeds reliable and compatible solutions to the market.

“Green Button CMD” Test Sheet (technical)

“Green Button CMD” Benefits Sheet (marketing)

Apply for Green Button CMD Testing…

Note: Our Green Button CMD Verification program for Third-Party vendors has been delayed until late 2022.  When available, it will be posted here.

The Green Button Download My Data (DMD) standard enables utility customers (residential, commercial, energy managers, etc.) to manually download their electricity-, natural gas-, or water-usage data from an energy or water provider’s website in an industry-standard XML data file format that can be opened by software applications of their choosing.  Customers can utilize these data to view their historical and present energy usage, analyze trends, and make informed choices about their consumption.  Utilities (“data custodians”) can apply to have their Green Button DMD solution tested.  If you are a utility (“data custodian”) that already has a Green Button Download My Data solution, you can pre-check your existing Green Button DMD files using the GBA’s Green Button DMD File Validator.  Pre-checking takes just a few minutes and there is no cost to confirm the files meet our testing requirements.

An Important Note About the DMD Validator…

Green Button DMD Validation Tool (website)

If you find your DMD solution is not standards-compliant, contact the GBA for assistance and suggested “next steps” to ensure your solution is ready for Green Button Alliance DMD Testing.

Apply for Green Button DMD Testing…