Green Button Certification Program

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 Certification 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 Certified℠ DMD or Green Button Certified℠ CMD Certification mark denoting compliance to the standard.

    

Get the Latest Version of the Standard

Before you get tested, be sure you are using the latest version of the standard. 

In December 2023, the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) ratified and published enhancements to the Energy Service Provider Interface (ESPI) Retail Energy Quadrant Book 21 (REQ.21) standard commonly referred to as the Green Button Standard:

  • Updated security requirements to TLS 1.3 as a minimum for transport security.
  • Provided a mechanism to request-and-receive bill images (like bills in PDF format) via the Connect My Data mechanism; if supported by the data provider.

Order a copy of the version 4.0 ESPI standard here:

Trademarks and Certification Marks

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 Certification Testing program.  No use of language that 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 Alliance logos, marks, or trademarked terms require the signing of a Logo License Agreement by GBA Members, non-Members, and those undergoing Green Button Certification Testing.
Contact Us for a digitally sign-able Green Button Logo License Agreement.

For more detail about compliance, see our online 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 Word Marks

Benefits and Costs of Testing through the GBA

    

Certification Benefits:

  • Assures utilities (data custodians) they’ve implemented the standard correctly and their solution will provide consistent, reliable data and work with other Green Button data-enabled solutions.

  • Speeds data-sharing implementation time-to-market and assures a seamless and secure data-sharing experience for customers.

  • Ensures utilities and their customers are gaining the full functionality and capabilities of the standard—see “Green Button Connect My Data (CMD)” Data Sheet, above.

  • A Green Button Alliance DMD or CMD Certification mark on the data custodian’s site signifies the solution has been tested to be standards-compliant, and a listing in the GBA database helps promote tested solutions to a broader audience.

    

Testing & Certification Packages:

Membership in the Green Button Alliance is not required for Certification but some Training & Education Time is provided to Members without additional cost (see below for details).

  1. Data Custodian, Download My Data Certification
    (DC-DMD): USD $3000
    - includes a single two-hour testing window
  2. Data Custodian, Connect My Data Certification
    (DC-CMD): USD $3200
    - includes a single two-hour testing window
  3. Data Custodian, Combination Download My Data & Connect My Data Certifications
    (DC-DMD+DC-CMD): USD $3700
    - includes a single two-hour testing window
    - both DMD & CMD must be tested at the same time
    - both DMD & CMD must use the same platform/engine

Additional Certification Testing time (i.e., an additional two-hour testing window) can be obtained for USD $2500 if required-changes cannot be made within the initial two-hour testing window of the Certification Test.

If you are not certain that you are ready to test, we offer a Pre-Certification Testing option at a fraction of the price: USD $250 per hour1.

Purchase Certification Testing Sessions

    

Technical Education & Training Time:

The GBA offers Technical Education & Training customized for you to understand Green Button from a technical perspective.  The GBA also offers a Pre-Certification Testing to prepare for the actual Certification Testing of your implementation (see above).

  • Participating Members of the GBA receive two (2) hours of Technical Education & Training.
  • Sponsor Members of the GBA receive ten (10) hours of Technical Education & Training.
  • Technical Education & Training time is open to both Members and non-Members on an hourly basis as well. Presently, the rate is USD $250 per hour (one-hour minimum) and training/education is via telephone, email, and/or screen-sharing (Zoom, GTM, Teams, FCC, Meet, etc.) as needed.  On-site training/education can also be provided at additional cost; contact us for details.

Purchase Technical Education & Training Time

    

  1. ^ Pre-Certification Testing cannot be purchased unless an actual Certification Testing session has been purchased first.