Green Button Energy Data Initiative Targets Commercial Market

Smart grid firms Itron, OPower, Oracle, and Silver Spring Networks have announced their support for the White House’s online Green Button initiative, which aims to allow consumers and businesses easy access to information on their energy consumption.

The open data Green Button initiative aims to set a standard data format for recording the hourly or 15 minute readings from most commercial interval meters.

Forming part of President Obama’s “All-of-the-Above” energy strategy, Green Button-enabled web and smartphone applications promise to help consumers and businesses choose the most economical rate plan for their use patterns; provide customized energy efficiency tips; provide easy-to-use tools to size and finance rooftop solar panels; and deliver virtual energy audit software that cuts costs for building owners and gets retrofits started sooner, the White House said.

Companies announcing yesterday that they are developing applications or services for businesses and consumers using this industry data standard include: Belkin, Efficiency 2.0, EnergySavvy, FirstFuel, Honest Buildings, Lucid, Plotwatt, Schneider-Electric, Simple Energy and Sunrun.

Nine major utilities and electricity suppliers, including Commonwealth Edison, American Electric Power and Virginia Dominion Power, have also this week committed to providing more than 15 million households access to data about their own energy use with a click of the online Green Button, the White House said.