This post was revised 2/12/2012
Last week, the White House announced the Green Button initiative. The goal of the initiative is to
The Green Button provided me with a csv file which looked
just like this sample file in the screenshot I have posted to the right. In the case of the file I downloaded, data
went back to mid-2008, which I assume is when my mom’s SmartMeter was
installed. There was a separate file available
for natural gas usage, with a similar format.
Last week, the White House announced the Green Button initiative. The goal of the initiative is to
provide electricity customers with easy access to their energy usage
data in a consumer-friendly and computer-friendly format via a “Green Button”
on electric utilities’ website. With this information in hand, customers can
take advantage of innovative energy apps to help them understand their energy
usage and find ways to reduce electricity consumption and shrink bills, all
while ensuring they retain privacy and security.
-Aneesh Chopra U.S. Chief Technology Officer
-Aneesh Chopra U.S. Chief Technology Officer
The first two utilities to offer the service are Pacific Gas
and Electric (PG&E) and San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E). I was
curious about the data available so I convinced a current PG&E customer to
let me take a look at her energy usage information (thanks Mom!).
The Green Button exported file includes hourly electricity usage. The program intends to aid cost-effectiveness
analyses for energy efficiency or distributed power investments (such as a more
efficient boiler or solar panels). Many residential electricity tariffs include
multiple billing determinants, such as a $/kW demand change based on the maximum
15 minutes of demand in a month and a $/kWh energy charge based on hourly energy
usage during the entire month. In addition, both the demand and energy change
can vary by the hour of the day. Energy efficiency and distribute power investments provide energy savings at
specific hours of the day and months of the year. With hourly data, a homeowner or third party provider will be able to make informed decisions on these types of investments.
Overall, I like the effort to make data open and standardize
the process to access it. I am interested to see what third party applications are built to use this information. My guess is that the green button will make customer cost projections easier and cheaper to generate for residential solar leasing companies such as SolarCity, Sungevity, and SunRun.
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