Leading-edge Energy Data Access Initiatives Progress in U.S.
Energy Data Access initiatives continue to progress in the U.S. supported by regulators, utilities and stakeholders looking to enable their states and utility customers with the energy data required to meet energy management, climate and renewable energy goals. States including New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine are implementing or considering the following energy data access initiatives:
New York: The Integrated Energy Data Resource (IEDR) is New York's centralized, statewide energy-data platform that provides access to energy-related data and information from New York’s electric, gas, and steam utilities—and other sources—to support innovation, new business models, and the state’s clean energy goals.
Phase I of the IEDR was completed in March 2024. The IEDR currently includes an Electric Infrastructure Assessment Tool (EIAT) - an interactive map of New York’s installed and queued DERs, and hosting capacity to help plan and site DERs; a Rate Plan Browser; and a Green Button Connect (GBC) Tool to enable registered Energy Service Entities (ESEs) to digitally request customer authorization to access customer utility data from all of New York’s investor-owned utilities to assist in the scoping, deploying, and monitoring of clean energy projects. The GBC tool is currently in a 'sandbox' environment (to allow users to explore functionality, but with mock data sets), and is now accepting registrations from ESEs. The full rollout of the IEDR's Green Button Connect tool will enable utility customers to securely share their actual customer data with customer-authorized third-party energy companies.
The IEDR project team, including GBA sponsor member UtilityAPI, are working on Phase II of the IEDR platform, with Green Button Connect functionality being a key use case. Phase II of the IEDR also aims to include an additional 40+ use cases by July 2026 including EV Charger Siting and Load Growth Planning; Building Benchmarking and Electrification; System Reliability Benchmarking, and more. The IEDR presents data in an easy to find and use manner, and is free for users. See NYSERDA’s IEDR program page and YouTube play list for more information.
Regional Energy Data Hub: A Regional (multi-state) Joint Utility Energy Data Hub is being proposed by utilities in New Hampshire, including GBA member Unitil, with support from utilities in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine. The Regional Energy Data Hub would give 5.5 million electric customers and millions of gas customers access to their standards-based energy data. The Energy Data Hub would improve customer billing and meter data portability for the utilities, their customers and customer-authorized third-party service providers, as well as help to advance DERs/clean energy. The Regional Energy Data Hub would be Certified as compliant to Green Button standard by the Green Button Alliance. The utilities are seeking half the funding for the proposed Energy Data Hub from the U.S. DOE’s Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) grant program. The utilities would need to receive any remaining regulatory approvals from their respective states. Read more about the proposed Regional Energy Data Hub.
Connecticut: Docket No. 17-12-03RE02, Investigation into Distribution Planning of the Electric Distribution Companies-Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). PURA’s January 3, 2024 final decision establishes a framework for the electric distribution companies (EDCs) to invest in AMI. The framework notes utilities proposing AMI would be required to provide Green Button Connect standards-based utility-data access for customers. The proceeding is on-going as cost-recovery is assessed.
Raised Bill No. 5443 – An Act Establishing an Energy Data Access Bill of Rights for Residents. Introduced in the February Session, 2024, the bill aims to guarantee public access to high-quality data needed to set informed climate targets and monitor progress. Rights for residents would include the ability to view data related to the state's building stock; renewable energy sources and energy storage projects connected to the electric distribution system, as well as the ability to access a public website and database containing the data. Residents would have the right to view and distribute their own energy usage data collected by electric distribution companies.
Follow Raised Bill No. 5443 progress.
Massachusetts: DPU 21-80/81/82, approves the Grid Modernization Plans for NSTAR Electric Company (Eversource); Massachusetts Electric Company and Nantucket Electric Company (National Grid), and Fitchburg Gas and Electric Light Company (Unitil). AMI and Green Button Connect functionality has been discussed in AMI stakeholder workgroup meetings with the final report filed August 1, 2024. The Department is currently reviewing and will determine next steps.