Newsletter | January 2016

January 11, 2016

in Newsletters,

Chairman's View |

Syed Mir, Chairman

Happy NewYear 2016! This year is already promising to be the year of significant Green Button advancements in deployments, customer adoption, innovative solutions, and the Green Button standard.

Several leading energy service providers currently offer, or are planning to offer, their customers access to standardized Green Button customer energy usage data as part of their customer engagement strategies. For example, as you'll read below in this month's 'Member Spotlight' feature, San Diego Gas & Electric's (SDG&E) customers are actively using the utility's Green Button Connect My Data (CMD) platform as a means to securely and privately share their Green Button data with registered, innovative third-party application vendors; providing their customers with many options to manage and conserve energy.

To address the rapidly scaling market opportunity for Green Button data, further advancements to the standard are underway. The Green Button Alliance has been at the forefront of the the Green Button standard development since the Alliance's inception. This month, the publisher of the Green Button standard, the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB), joins the GBA. I want to welcome Jonathan Booe, Executive Vice President, NAESB, to our board of directors. The GBA and NAESB are working together to provide enhancements to the Green Button standard.

Speaking of advancing the standard, I want to congratulate Dr. Martin J. Burns, John A. Teeter and David A. Wollman of the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on being recognized by the U.S. Department of Commerce with the Silver Medal award for their work in developing the foundation of the Green Button standard. Without their foresight and dedication, none of this would be possible.

I predict 2016 will see the Green Button standard playing an increasingly strategic role in the transformations occuring within the energy industry and we look forward to working with you during this exciting time!

Best wishes for a successful year,

Syed Mir

Welcome New Members! |

The Green Button Alliance is proud to welcome the Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA) and the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) as new members.

Member Spotlight | SDG&E

SDG&E has been a proud supporter of the Green Button initiative since its inception. Responding to the 90-day challenge of the U.S. White House, SDG&E launched "Green Button Download My Data" in December 2011. To date, more than 175,000 Green Button Downloads have been performed by SDG&E customers.

Functionality and Uptake Continues to Grow

In December 2012, SDG&E continued to expand on the commitment to Green Button technology by launching "Green Button Connect My Data". With Green Button Connect My Data, a SDG&E customer can select from one or more apps provided by third parties registered with SDG&E to automatically receive and analyze their energy usage data. SDG&E customers can use the Green Button Connect filtering tool to help them select a suitable app and then enroll directly via the SDG&E My Account portal. SDG&E has a total of 28 registered third parties, and sends approximately 5,600 data files on a daily basis to different Green Button Connect applications.

The Green Button Connect platform provides the foundation for SDG&E and other initiatives to send customer energy usage data in a secure and private manner. Lisa Davidson, Director, Customer Programs says, "Green Button Connect My Data and the apps empower customers to make informed choices about how they share their energy data and find new ways to save energy and money. The ESPI file format as a standard also provides for a relatively easy implementation for both the utility and the third party."

Looking Forward

SDG&E is committed to finding new and better ways to serve our customers and to support the advancement of the Green Button Ecosystem. "Green Button Connect is a very beneficial online tool from SDG&E that allows San Diego Unified School District to download its energy use for analysis and reporting," said Darin Vey, energy utilities program supervisor for the San Diego Unified School District. "Our district used this tool for the K-12 student energy competition last year with a database from a third party to connect to Green Button and to publish the results amongst the schools that were competing. It was very successful."

SDG&E looks forward to the continued innovative and engaging ideas that will come forth from the community of developers and other utilities both nationally and internationally. These types of innovation would not be possible without smart meters that provide real-time energy information that allows SDG&E customers to save money and conserve energy.

Member News |

The Green Button Alliance welcomes new member the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) . Jonathan Booe , executive vice president and chief administrative officer of NAESB will serve on the Green Button Alliance's board of directors. The Green Button Download My Data (DMD) and Connect My Data (CMD) standards are based on NAESB's Energy Services Provider Interface (ESPI) standard (REQ. 21). The GBA's executive and technical staff is working closely with NAESB to publish the next version of the standard.

The Green Button Alliance welcomes the Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA), a leading international organization that promotes advanced technologies in homes and buildings as an Affiliate Member. In a reciprocal membership agreement, the GBA has also joined CABA. As a member of CABA, the GBA will work to promote the adoption of the Green Button standard in integrated home systems and the building automation industry.

UtilityAPI , an enterprise software company that provides solar, storage and energy management professionals with simple access to energy usage data, has been selected to receive a $760,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's SunShot Initiative . UtilityAPI will use the capital to build more data connections to utilities and further expand the geographical footprint of the company's API service.

Ka Suen, CTO, Chai Energy (right)
Vice President Joe Biden (center)

On November 16th, at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator's (LACI) new La Kretz Innovation Center, representatives from green technology companies, including Chai Energy's CTO Ka Suen, were part of a roundtable discussion with Vice President Joe Biden and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. The group discussed building a more sustainable future, and Suen noted how Chai Energy empowers customers to save energy: "Here at Chai Energy we are trying to change how people view their electricity bills, what we provide is a real-time data stream that homeowners can directly access on their phone anytime, anywhere and view exactly how much energy they are using and when they are using it," said Suen. See Chai Energy's blog post about the event here .

Tech Corner |

David A. Wollman, NIST (center);
Bruce Andrews, Dept. of Commerce (left); Dr. Willie May, NIST (right)

In September, the U.S. Department of Commerce presented Martin J. Burns, John A. Teeter, and David A. Wollman of the Smart Grid and Cyber-Physical Systems Program at NIST, with the Silver Medal award for leadership in the White House Green Button initiative, giving consumers the vital information they need to manage their own energy usage. Working closely with industry and other agencies, the team led the development of the technology foundation for Green Button, including standards, testing and technical support for implementers. The GBA congratulates them on this well-deserved recognition, and thanks them for their continued work on the Green Button initiative.

Read about how London Hydro is empowering its Ontario-based customers with access to their Green Button energy usage data and enabling them to manage their consumption with innovative applications such as Bidgely's HomeBeat in this recent London Free Press article: "Riding Herd on the Energy Hogs." For more information on London Hydro's Green Button initiative, and a complete listing of its third-party Connect My Data (CMD) applications, click here .

Events & Activities |

The Green Button Community Call #3, hosted by MaRS Discovery District (MaRSDD), was held on November 19th. MaRSDD's Caroline Bordeaux updated listeners on Green Button DMD and CMD implementations in Ontario; the Ontario Ministry of Energy addressed the evolution of the standard and regulatory landscape in Ontario; and the Green Button Alliance's executive director, Barry Haaser, presented GBA growth and Green Button standards news. The call also featured a Green Button CMD demo session with representatives from Bidgely, Energent and BuiltSpace discussing their solutions and benefits. If you missed the call, you can access the presentation here.

The GBA's recent in-person board meeting held on November 30-December 1 at GBA founding member Silver Spring Networks' headquarters in Redwood City, California was highly collaborative and productive, the GBA thanks its secretary and treasurer, Mimi Zhang, senior product manager at Silver Spring Networks, and the company, for hosting the meeting.

What's next?

The Green Button Alliance will host a panel entitled "Achieving Effective Customer Engagement in a Competitive Energy Landscape" at the Grid Modernization Forum to be held January 19-20, 2016, in Chicago. GBA member Energyworx ' Matthew Ross will present, joining speakers from National Grid and CEIVA Energy. GBA's U.S. DOE Home Energy Information Accelerator program partner Elevate Energy's Laura Stukel will moderate the panel.

The Green Button Alliance will be exhibiting at DistribuTECH taking place February 9-11, 2016, in Orlando, Florida. Stop by and see us, we'll be part of the UCA International Users Group (UCAIug) booth #1833.

The Green Button Community Call

The next Green Button Community Call will be hosted by MaRSDD and will be held on February 17th, 2016 at 3:00 pm EST (20:00 UTC). Register here to be notified of the call details/agenda.