January 2025
Member Spotlight
In 2025, we will recognize one member each month, providing an organizational profile and highlighting the member's accomplishments in the smart energy space.
About Green Button Alliance (GBA)
The Green Button Alliance (GBA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that fosters the development, compliance and adoption of the industry’s Green Button Energy Data-Access and Secure Data-Sharing Standard and Green Button-standards-based implementations. The GBA is composed of leading utilities, governmental agencies, solution providers and affiliated organizations that collaborate to advance the Green Button standards.
The GBA educates the market on the broad benefits of the Green Button standards, encourages standards-based application development, and administers the Green Button Testing and Certification Program to accelerate the delivery of standardized Green Button technologies to energy and water consumers.
Industry Standard for Utility Data-Access and Secure Data-Sharing
“Green Button” is the commonly known name of the North American Energy Board’s (NAESB) REQ.21 Energy Services Provider Interface (ESPI) standard in concert with supporting standards for data-sharing authorization. The Green Button standard was created with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP), the Utility Communications Architecture International Users Group (UCAIug) and the White House.
The open, flexible, Green Button standard securely unlocks and standardizes utility data – empowering utilities, utility customers both large and small, and authorized third-party entities with digital access to energy, natural gas, and water usage and billing information in a standardized format.
In North America, the Green Button standard is a key component of several grid modernization and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) plans as it enables utilities to maximize investments in AMI and provide scalable, digital platforms and new energy data-enabled services that allow all types of utility customers to easily access – and securely share – their own utility data with companies of their choosing, while ensuring customer privacy is always maintained.
Unlocking Utility Data
Green Button Connect My Data® (CMD) is the industry’s open-data standard method for unlocking access to utility interval usage and billing data. Utilities providing standards-based Green Button CMD platforms are today providing customers with new data-driven services, programs and platforms – digitally empowering consumers with the ability to securely transfer their data to third-party solution providers, who can further assist them in monitoring and managing energy or water usage. Utilities with Green Button energy data-enabled CMD platforms can easily scale their platforms to provide:
- Energy Management and Mobile Apps
- Facilities and Property Benchmarking/Reporting
- Demand Response/Virtual Power Plants (VPPs)
- Solar and Storage Apps
- Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Time Management
- Clean Energy Solutions
Green Button Download My Data® (DMD) is the standard method for enabling utility customers to manually access and download their historical and current usage data from their utility’s website in the industry-standard Green Button format, analyze trends and make informed resource-management choices; or they can share their downloaded files with applications or service providers for further assistance.
Green Button Directory Services℠ include a comprehensive, searchable Directory of Utilities (including IOUs, CCAs, Munis and Co-ops), Third-Party Apps and Services Providers and Utility-Platform Providers offering Green Button data-enabled platforms and solutions. The new Green Button Directory℠ is free to use to enable anyone to easily locate Green Button data-enabled platforms and solutions, including Green Button Certified℠ solutions.
Ensuring Standards Compliance
Through its Testing and Certification Program, the GBA tests Green Button CMD and DMD implementations to ensure they have been properly implemented, conform to the Green Button standard and provide consistent Green Button data that will securely work with Green Button standard-compliant apps. The GBA also offers cost-effective pre-Certification testing and advisory services to assist data custodians in developing standards-compliant solutions prior to testing and Certification.
For more information on the Green Button Alliance’s programs, benefits, meetings and events or to learn how to become a member, please visit www.greenbuttonalliance.org.
