Certification Preparation

Before begining the Green Button Certification test, the Certification Candidate should ensure they can pass the Certification test on the first attempt by performing the following steps as far in-advance of the actual test as possible:

Assurance of a Valid Copy of the Standard

The Green Button Certification tests require the applicant to comply with the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) copyright policy. This requires that all implementers of the NAESB REQ.21 Energy Services Provider Interface (ESPI) standard (commonly called Green Button^®) have purchased the latest standard version, “NAESB REQ.21 ESPI ver 4.0” (or are under a mandate for a previous version), or have received a copy of the standard as a benefit of NAESB membership. To determine if the Certification Candidate has purchased the standard, the Test Administrator will access the NAESB Purchased Standards (PDF) document and search for the Candidate’s company name.

The NAESB REQ.21 (ESPI) standard can be purchased using the NAESB Materials Order Form for ESPI:

NAESB ESPI Order Form (PDF)

Data-File Format Validation

If the Certification Candidate has already developed the Green Button Connect My Data^® or Green Button Download My Data^® platforms, the next step is to ensure the output data are compliant to the standard.

Using the GBA’s online file validator, test the data that are either:

• output by the CMD platform as a stream (save it as one or more files) or
• downloaded from the DMD platform as one or more files.

Online Green Button File Validator

1. Select the function blocks (FBs) that match the FBs that you, the Certification Candidate, would like tested during the Certification test, then
2. Drag-and-drop the test file (one at a time) into the grey area labeled:
   • “5) Drag and Drop your XML File Here (ending in .xml) to instantly upload it and start the validation…”.
3. Before dropping a file, you may also want to check the boxes labeled:
   • “Allow my file to be saved on the Green Button Alliance servers” and
   • “Download my validation results (in addition to viewing them below)”.
     These are optional but will assist the GBA in helping resolve any issues the test may uncover.

Certification Application

If the data files pass the Validator tests, complete the Certification Application appropriate to the platform you want tested.

Certification Identifier

The Green Button data test file is also inspected to ensure it contains an entry that identifies the GBA Certification Identifier (CertID) for which the data file is being tested. To pass this test, the following record example must appear in the file being submitted:

<link rel="related" 
      href="https://cert.greenbuttonalliance.org/certificate/5a3b806d-0c69-5443-bc9d-0b8d6bddb152" 
      type="text/html" />

…where the 5a3b806d-0c69-5443-bc9d-0b8d6bddb152 is just an example CertID; it must be replaced with the CertID given to the Certification Candidate upon acceptance of both:

1. the submitted Certification Application (see above) and 
2. the payment of the Certification test.

The CertID should appear as one of the first records (XML elements) in the Green Button file or stream, typically after the <feed>(from Atom)  tag, as shown in the following example, and must be present in every output file/stream of data provided by the data custodian (e.g., utility or aggregator):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
    <id>urn:uuid:711678ed-96bf-5ce9-93d2-d7489ad0e11e</id>
    <title>Green Button Usage Feed</title>
    <updated>2000-21-31T23:59:59Z</updated>
    <link rel="self" 
          href="https://green-button.org/DataCustodian/espi/1_1/resource/Batch/Subscription/1a2b3c4d5e6f7" 
          type="espi-entry/Subscription" />
    <link rel="related" 
          href="https://cert.greenbuttonalliance.org/certificate/5a3b806d-0c69-5443-bc9d-0b8d6bddb152" 
          type="text/html" />
…

Ready for the Certification Test

Fine-Tuning and Pre-Certification Testing

For GBA Sponsor and Participating Members, the development-system testing can be covered by their technical support benefit (ten hours for Sponsors; two hours for Participating members) if there is time remaining of their benefit hours.

Alternatively, GBA Members and non-Members alike can purchase technical-education time for assistance.

If you have purchased your Certification-Testing Session, you will be eligible to purchase a Pre-Certification Testing Session to prepare your platform at a fraction the cost of having to re-do the actual Certification Testing Session if testing proves unsuccessful in the first attempt.

Success and the Next Steps

Upon successful completion of the Green Button Certification test, the Green Button Alliance:

1. Sends a link to a digitally signable Green Button Alliance Logo License Agreement to allow use of the Green Button Certification Marks.
2. Upon receipt of a signed copy of the Green Button Alliance Logo License Agreement, the GBA will send the successful Candidate the Green Button Certified CMD and/or Green Button Certified DMD image files for the successful Candidate’s use on collateral and platform website.
3. The documentation of the Green Button Alliance Logo License Agreement details how the Green Button Certified Marks may be used; further, there is a Certified Marks Style Guide to assist with proper attribution and trademark usage.

We wish you great success with your Green Button solutions and
we are here to help you reach that success,
- Green Button Alliance Staff