GBA Announces 55 Ontario-based Utilities’ Platforms Certified
Green Button Alliance Announces 55 Ontario-based Utilities’ Platforms Are Now Green Button Certified
Nearly All of Ontario's 5.4 Million Electricity Customers and Over 3.5 Million Natural Gas Customers Now Empowered with Easy, Digital Access to their Energy Consumption Data, Helping them to Manage Energy Usage and Reduce Costs
- Ontario Now Empowers Residences and Businesses across the Province with Digital Access to their Energy Consumption Data, Further Broadening North American Availability of ‘Green Button Certified’ Solutions that Maximize Investments in AMI Infrastructure and Support Grid Modernization Strategies;
- Utility-provided ‘Green Button Certified’ Platforms Simplify Energy Management, Enable Energy Efficiency and Cost Savings; Open the Market for New Apps and Services including Demand Response and VPPs; Speed Deployment of Clean Energy Solutions including Solar, EV Charging, and Electric Heat Pumps; While Ensuring Customer Data Privacy
November 2, 2023 - The Green Button Alliance (GBA), which fosters the development, compliance, and adoption of the industry’s Green Button® energy and water data-access and -sharing protocol, today announced it has tested and Certified 55 utilities’ platforms across Ontario as compliant with the North American Energy Standards Board’s (NAESB) Retail Energy Quadrant Book 21 (REQ.21) Energy Services Provider Interface (ESPI) standard, version 3.3; commonly known as the Green Button standard. The utilities are covered by Ontario’s Energy Data Regulation 633/21, which requires utilities provincewide to implement Green Button Connect My Data® (CMD) and Green Button Download My Data® (DMD) sharing methods, as well as have them Certified by the Green Button Alliance by November 1, 2023. Certification to industry standards is an essential first step in laying the groundwork for a thriving, interoperable-solutions marketplace.
Ontario, through the new utility-provided Green Button Certified℠ platforms, now empowers nearly 100% of the province’s 5.4 million residential and business electricity customers and over 3.5 million natural gas customers with easy, digital access to their billing and energy-consumption data. The Certified utility solutions ensure the key benefits [.pdf] of the Green Button standard, including ensuring customer data privacy, interoperability, and scalability of solutions. The new platforms mark the broadening North American availability of Green Button Certified implementations that maximize AMI infrastructure and support utility grid modernization strategies.
“Ontario is known for its industry-leading energy vision and today, utilities across the province are providing Green Button Certified platforms to enable more energy-solutions choices for our customers,” said Syed Mir, Chairman, Green Button Alliance and VP Corporate Services & CIO, London Hydro. “Other provinces and states can look to Ontario as an example of how to support utilities in delivering data-driven energy-management programs and services that reduce energy usage costs, streamline building-consumption reporting, and set the stage for DER and EV charging visibility.”
Green Button Certified Platform Benefits
The Green Button Certified implementations enable Ontario’s utilities to provide their customers with new, standards-based, data-enabled platforms, apps, and services that allow customers to digitally access their utility data and securely share their data with third-party providers of services. Green Button implementations enable customers to manage their energy consumption, reduce costs, and take advantage of new, utility-provided, Green Button data-enabled services, such as Demand Response (DR) and Virtual Power Plants (VPPs). Green Button Connect My Data platforms also enable speedier deployments of solar, EV charging, and electric heat pumps, with interval measurements of usage patterns that further support energy efficiency, reduced costs, and decarbonization.
“The Green Button Alliance’s certification of 55 of Ontario’s utilities covered by the Energy Data regulation is due to the hands-on approach taken by regulators, utilities, and solution providers who envisioned Green Button standards-compliant solutions within a mandated timeframe; which was supported by close stakeholder collaboration in workgroup meetings,” said Jeremy J. Roberts, Executive Director, Green Button Alliance. “We commend Ontario’s energy-policy leadership and GBA Member companies, whose expertise was instrumental in implementing standards-based, certifiable Green Button data-access and -sharing solutions that enhance utilities’ digital customer-engagement strategies and address their needs for billing and consumption data.”
Including the recently Certified Ontario utility implementations, the GBA has now tested and certified over 130 Green Button utility platforms in the U.S. and Canada as compliant with the Green Button standard; demonstrating the growing number of utilities now implementing and adhering to the industry’s Green Button standard. Utility data-access platforms Certified as adhering to the Green Button standard provide a consistent data format and methods of secure access—opening the market for Green Button third-party solution providers and enabling speedier integration of those solutions with utility Green Button Connect My Data implementations.
About Green Button Connect My Data (CMD)
The Green Button Connect My Data (CMD) standard enables utilities to safely provide access to interval usage and billing data and allows utility customers—including residential, large commercial and industrial, cities and municipalities, or customer-authorized third-party solutions—to seamlessly and securely obtain detailed and highly precise interval-meter data to inform energy- and water-management decision-making. This is accomplished while ensuring customer data are protected and privacy is maintained. Utilities can maximize their metering infrastructure by utilizing their Green Button CMD platform to offer a host of new energy-data-enabled services. Energy managers can access standardized Green Button energy data in the Green Button format to streamline energy-management and consumption reporting. Third-party providers of consumer-centric services can more-rapidly develop applications that work seamlessly with other Green Button implementations.
About Green Button Download My Data (DMD)
The Green Button Download My Data (DMD) standard enables utility customers—including residential, large commercial and industrial, cities and municipalities, or customer-authorized third-party solutions—to access and download their historical and current usage data from their utility’s website in the industry standard Green Button format to analyze trends and make informed resource-management choices using in-house or off-the-shelf applications; or, they can share their downloaded files with applications or service providers for further assistance.
About the Green Button Alliance
The Green Button Alliance (GBA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization formed to foster the development, compliance, and global adoption of Green Button implementations. The GBA is comprised of leading utilities, governmental departments and agencies, solution providers, & affiliated organizations that collaborate to advance the Green Button standard to enable energy consumers around the world to access and share their energy- and water-usage data to better analyze and manage their consumption. The GBA educates the market on the broad benefits of the Green Button standard, encourages standards-based application development, and administers the Green Button Testing and Certification Program to accelerate the delivery of standardized Green Button technologies to energy and water consumers.
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Green Button Alliance, Green Button, Green Button Certified Connect My Data, Green Button Certified Download My Data, and the Green Button logo are trademarks or service marks of departments of the United States of America, the Ontario Ministry of Energy, and/or Green Button Alliance, Inc.