Chairman's View | 2016-08
Date postedAugust 26, 2016
The Government of Ontario in Canada recently released its Climate Change Action Plan which committed to expand the Green Button program province-wide and include electricity, natural gas and water to help more households and businesses manage and conserve their energy and water use. This coincides with the Ontario Ministry of Energy's (MOE) recent consultations, which will help to inform a decision on whether to require Ontario's electricity, natural gas and water utilities to implement the Green Button standard. The Ministry also conducted a cost-benefit analysis on implementing Green Button in Ontario to support its decision making. By leveraging the Green Button standard, Ontario-based utilities can enable innovative solutions that address utility data access needs for residential, institutional, commercial building and industrial customers.
The Ontario Ministry of Energy is continuing its efforts to promote Green Button in the province to empower consumers with access to their utility data and will also play a pro-active role in the Green Button Alliance. We welcome the Ontario Ministry of Energy to the Green Button Alliance board of directors.
The Alliance also welcomes to the board Pamela Deahl, principal manager, Data Info Government Analytics, Measurement & Evaluation at Southern California Edison (SCE) . Pamela is replacing Mark Podorsky of SCE, who served as vice-chairman of the Green Button Alliance board of directors. We thank Mark for his valuable contributions and leadership and wish him well in his upcoming retirement.
WattzOn is featured in our "Member Spotlight" this month. Read below to learn how WattzOn's powerful platform and suite of products provide connections for utility data capture and customized energy insights to engage connected homes and communities, speed sales for solar companies, and enable energy efficiency and savings.
Lastly, we'd like to call your attention to an opportunity to highlight Green Button ecosystem achievements. The White House, the Small Business Administration, and The Data Foundation will co-host the first-ever White House Open Data Innovation Summit with Solutions Showcase on 28 September 2016. For this event, the White House Office of Management and Budget has announced a call for submissions that showcase achievements and commitments in open data and My Data initiatives, which includes the Green Button initiative. See below in the "What's next" section for information on how to submit your Green Button achievements for consideration!
─ Syed Mir, Chairman