Use of the Green Button, which grants utility customers easy access to their electricity usage data, is continuing to grow.
Launched by the Energy Department in September of 2011 and modeled after the Veterans Affairs Department’s Blue Button, the Green Button is now used nationwide for homes and business.
Utilities in California and the Mid-Atlantic are taking it to another level, though, making it so users not only can download their usage data, but transfer it to authorized third parties, based on opt-in customer consent and control, according to a blog post written by Monisha Shah, deputy associate director for energy and climate change at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer Nick Sinai.
In their post, Shah and Sinai pointed out a number of new projects for the industry-led Green Button:
Ecova will take advantage of the Connect My Data platform to save commercial-building owners money by offering more targeted energy saving opportunities.
Solar City is integrating Connect My Data into its sales consultations to help customers assess solar’s potential to reduce home energy consumption and monthly electricity bills.
MyEnergy is now able to convert your utility bill into electronic Green Button data for you – almost anywhere in the country.
WeatherBug-Earth Networks is integrating Connect My Data with its real-time hyperlocal weather data to improve load management and save consumers money.
EnerNOC is using Green Button data to quality-check its real-time sensor data, and separately, has published an open-data set of anonymized energy consumption data from 100 buildings in the Green Button format.
Bidgely is using Connect My Data to offer appliance-level energy consumption insights to consumers.
ChargePoint will use Green Button to report energy consumption data to utilities from electric vehicle charging stations.
Wegowise is now using Green Button data to drive multifamily and commercial-building energy efficiency.
The Green Button also has value in the public sector as the local government here in Washington is working with Pepco to acquire energy usage in local government buildings to find ways to conserve energy and save money.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program also launched a tool called the “Home Energy Yardstick,” which helps people compare their home’s actual energy performance to other residences.
“Green Button is part of a comprehensive grid-modernization strategy, and recent estimates indicate that the administration’s early smart-grid investments have generated significant economic benefits for the American public,” Shah and Sinai wrote. “Investing in a modern grid – and continuing smart partnerships through the Green Button initiative – are important components of our strategy to cut energy waste in half by 2020 – and build a stronger, more resilient, and more competitive economy.”
