Newsletter | February 2023

Welcome New Members |

Member News |

The GBA Welcomes 2023 Board of Directors GBA Directors Collaborate to Drive Open, Standards-based Energy Data Access Adoption Annually, GBA members from the GBA's Participating Member companies vote to elect two representatives from amongst their colleagues at Participating Member companies to join the GBA’s Board of Directors. Following the 2023 Board of Directors election’s conclusion in November, the newly elected directors were announced at the GBA’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 17 November.

GBA's Annual General Meeting Featured Green Button Leaders, Use Cases, and New Green Button Solutions In recognition of the 1-year mark of Ontario's visionary energy data policy that is bringing standards-based Green Button energy data access and secure data-sharing to energy customers across the province, the GBA held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) & Green Button Meet-up on 17 November in Toronto, Ontario. The GBA's AGM featured talks from Green Button leaders, market updates, use-cases, the presentation of the GBA's Chairman's Award and more. Directly following the AGM, the Green Button Meet-up featured GBA member companies' new Green Button solutions being deployed in the province, enabling Meet-up attendees to learn about Green Button implementations, products, services and additional use-cases, directly from the solution providers.

Ontario's Minister of Energy, Todd Smith, discussed Ontario's leadership in putting families and businesses in control of their energy usage; enabling them to track and manage their energy consumption; save on monthly bill costs; while helping to reduce carbon and supporting a cleaner environment. He commended the province's utilities, innovators, and stakeholders on their continuing Green Button collaboration and progress.

Minister Smith was joined by GBA expert speakers including GBA Chair Syed Mir, London Hydro; Jeremy J. Roberts, GBA; GBA Vice Chair Daniel Roesler, UtilityAPI; Tracy Lynch, Enbridge Gas; Bob Champagne, Smart Energy Water (SEW); Bala Gnanam, BOMA Canada; Jonathan Booe, North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB); and David Wollman, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The speakers educated attendees about new utility-provided Green Button Connect My Data implementations; new energy data-enabled solutions and services; and several use-cases in addition to residential energy management including: facilities energy management and building benchmarking; dynamic EV charging load management; demand-response and incentive programs; ESG/carbon tracking; energy data-enabled hybrid heating; solar installer network scaling; clean energy and DER integration, and more.

Minister Smith joined GBA Chair Syed Mir in presenting the GBA’s Chairman’s Award for "Green Button -enabled Innovation" to Logical Buildings' CEO, Jeff Hendler, in recognition of the company's GridRewards app that informs users when and how to manage energy usage - enabling them to lower their electricity costs, earn cash payments, and reduce their carbon footprints year-around.   The Green Button Meet-up featured GBA members' Green Button solutions including: Logical Buildings' GridRewards; Utilismart's Ontario Green Button Toolset powered by UtilityAPI; ERTH Power Corporation's ERTH GB Connector developed in partnership with Savage Data Systems and NorthStar Utilities; Enbridge Gas highlighted an advanced residential hybrid heating system pilot leverging Green Button data provided by London Hydro; London Hydro and JOMAR featured an LDC enterprise solution consisting of the LH Green Button and Customer Connect Portal services integrated with JOMAR's CIS/MDM and Settlement Utility Suite; and Big Data Energy Services highlighted its digital asset management services, advanced and secure data exchange capabilities and Unified Platform. The GBA's AGM was well-attended with great cross-industry participation. The GBA thanks the board members, member companies, meeting contributors and all who attended in-person and online. If you missed the AGM, a recording will be available on the GBA's website.

ERTH Corporation’s ERTH GB Connector Powered by Savage Data Systems to Provide More Than 600,000 Energy Consumers with Green Button Data Access On 05 December, Ontario Minister of Energy Todd Smith, GBA member company ERTH Corporation, and representatives from several utility partners, gathered to launch the Green Button solution that will provide more than 600,000 consumers across Ontario with access to their Green Button data. The ERTH GB Connector Powered by Savage Data Systems manages the requirements of the Green Button standard, while working with NorthStar Utilities Solutions and SilverBlaze to connect the customer and billing data that is required.

In partnership with Savage Data Systems and NorthStar Utilities Solutions, ERTH is implementing the ERTH GB Connector solution for 24 Ontario-based Local Distribution Companies (LDCs). Several representatives from the LDCs attended the joint Green Button solution launch, demonstrating the collaborative effort and shared commitment to the Green Button initiative. The GBA congratulates member companies ERTH Corporation, Savage Data Systems and SilverBlaze, and the LDCs, on the launch of the ERTH GB Connector! Follow ERTH Corporation on Twitter and LinkedIn.

ENWIN Utilities Launches Green Button Solution to Help Customers Manage Energy Usage & Costs On 05 December, ENWIN Utilities Ltd. was joined by Ontario’s Minister of Energy Todd Smith and local officials to announce the launch of ENWIN’s Green Button solution. “This is truly a monumental day for ENWIN Utilities as we are introducing a solution that can help over 90,000 customers better track their energy usage, and help them save on utility costs,” said Helga Reidel, President and CEO, ENWIN Utilities. Customers can utilize ENWIN’s Green Button solution by registering at my.ENWIN.com. The GBA congratulates ENWIN on the launch of its Green Button solution!

On 09 September, the Green Button Alliance tested and certified Michigan-based utility Consumers Energy’s Data Sharing Center, a Green Button Connect energy data access and sharing implementation, as compliant to the North American Energy Standards Board’s (NAESB) REQ.21 Energy Service Provider Interface (ESPI) standard, version 3.3, commonly known as the Green Button standard with Retail Customer (RC) components. The Retail Customer schema of the standard ensures the secure sharing of Personally Identifiable Information (PII), a streamlined customer authorization process, and includes the latest security updates. Consumers Energy’s newly Certified Green Button Connect implementation was developed, and is powered, by GBA member company UtilityAPI.

Smart Energy Water (SEW), with its industry-leading cloud platforms, aims to deliver the best Digital Customer Experiences and Mobile Workforce Experiences, powered by AI, ML and IoT Analytics to global Energy, Water and Gas providers. Learn about SEW’s Green Button Accelerator which is combined with SEW's Smart Customer Mobile (SCM®) and its embedded AI-powered usage analytics, in the SEW Member Spotlight feature.

In the Headlines | 

• 01 February: "Itron Expands Collaboration with Smart Energy Water (SEW) to Transform the Consumer Experience," Itron announcement.
• 27 January: "US-EU Data Sharing Partnership for AI is a Welcome Step Forward, Says Center for Data Innovation," Center for Data Innovation post.
• 26 January: "NT Power Leads Way with Customers' Green Button Access to Data," NewMarketToday.ca.
• 24 January: "BOMA BEST Poised to be Cross-Border Benchmark," Canadian Property Management. BOMA Canada.
• 05 January: "Pushing the Green Button: How to Access Your Home's Energy Data to Save (& Even Earn) Money," OhmConnect Unplugged blog post.
• 29 December: "Province Gives Families, Businesses More Control Over Electricity and Natural Gas Bills," Chatham This Week. Green Button Connect My Data.
• 21 December: "US Smart Meter Penetration Continues Steady Growth, Tops 100M in Operation: FERC," UtilityDive.
• 19 December: "Entegrus, Energy Minister Push the Green Button," Chatham Voice.
• 06 December: "Windsorites Get New Tool To Track Electricity Use," Windsor Star. Green Button Connect My Data.
• 05 December: "Minister Smith Joins ERTH Corporation and Utility Partners for a Joint Green Button Solution Launch," ERTH Corporation announcement.
• 05 December: "Deadline of November 1,2023, for Implementation of 'Green Button' in Ontario," Aird & Berlis LLP Energy Insider blog post.
• 05 December: "Ontario's Green Button Program Aims to Help Windsorites Save Money on Energy Bills," CTV News.
• 05 December: "Minister of Energy Todd Smith Joins ENWIN Utilities Ltd. for Announcement of Green Button Solution," ENWIN Utilities announcement.
• 21 November: "DOE Announces $1.08 Billion for Green Button Connect Projects," Mission:data announcement.
• 12 November: "The U.S. Electric System is Leaning on Customers to Avoid Blackouts," Wall Street Journal. OhmConnect highlighted.

Green Button Alliance Meetings | 

• The GBA’s next All-Member Call will be held today via dial-in and web: Tuesday, 14 February at 11:00am PST / 2:00pm EST. All GBA Members are invited to attend. Participation logistics will be emailed to GBA Members.

• The GBA hosts the OpenADE Task Force technical meetings—open to members and non-members. The next one-hour OpenADE Task Force meeting will be held today Tuesday, 14 February at 12:00pm PST / 3:00pm EST. Visit https://openade.org for logistics.