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The Government of Ontario in Canada recently released its
Climate Change Action Plan
which committed to expand the Green Button program province-wide and include electricity, natural gas and water to help more households and businesses manage and conserve their energy and water use. This coincides with the
Ontario Ministry of Energy's (MOE) recent consultations, which will help to inform a decision on whether to require Ontario's electricity, natural gas and water utilities to implement the Green Button standard. The Ministry also conducted a cost-benefit analysis on implementing Green Button in Ontario to support its decision making. By leveraging the Green Button standard, Ontario-based utilities can enable innovative solutions that address utility data access needs for residential, institutional, commercial building and industrial customers.
The Ontario Ministry of Energy is continuing its efforts to promote Green Button in the province to empower consumers with access to their utility data and will also play a pro-active role in the Green Button Alliance. We welcome the Ontario Ministry of Energy to the Green Button Alliance board of directors.
The Alliance also welcomes to the board Pamela Deahl, principal manager, Data Info Government Analytics, Measurement & Evaluation at
Southern California Edison (SCE)
. Pamela is replacing Mark Podorsky of SCE, who served as vice-chairman of the Green Button Alliance board of directors. We thank Mark for his valuable contributions and leadership and wish him well in his upcoming retirement.
WattzOn
is featured in our "Member Spotlight" this month. Read below to learn how WattzOn's powerful platform and suite of products provide connections for utility data capture and customized energy insights to engage connected homes and communities, speed sales for solar companies, and enable energy efficiency and savings.
Lastly, we'd like to call your attention to an opportunity to highlight Green Button ecosystem achievements. The White House, the Small Business Administration, and The Data Foundation will co-host the first-ever White House Open Data Innovation Summit with Solutions Showcase on 28 September 2016. For this event, the White House Office of Management and Budget has announced a call for submissions that showcase achievements and commitments in open data and My Data initiatives, which includes the Green Button initiative. See below in the "What's next" section for information on how to submit your Green Button achievements for consideration!
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Syed Mir, Chairman
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WattzOn is a software company that provides tools for consumers to authorize access to their utility data and its transfer to third parties, such as solar installers or connected home companies. WattzOn also has a suite of products that provide personalized consumer energy insights, including customized text messages, monthly utility data reports, and monthly solar savings reports. Covering 90% of U.S. homes, WattzOn is the leader in utility data access. With a fast-growing cleantech ecosystem, utility data is key to showing consumers how they can benefit from innovative products and services. WattzOn serves a critical function, with great attention to security and privacy protocols.
WattzOn has been awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for "Consumer Insights from Smart Meter Data", and was a featured presentation at the White House Energy DataPalooza for its early use of Green Button, and the consumer applications utility data enables. WattzOn is also an early adopter of DOE's DataGuard Code of Conduct. WattzOn's customers integrate utility data into their sales processes, and WattzOn easily integrates into CRM systems, bringing the benefits of consumer engagement experience to business partners.
Based in Mountain View, California, WattzOn has built automated and secure data connections to more than 215 utilities, via the same technologies used in the banking industry for personal financial management. In addition, WattzOn's product suite delivers consumer energy engagement and energy savings. Recent program results include email open rates 3X industry averages and 8 - 12% energy savings (vs. a control group) from behavior changes alone.
Looking Forward
Consumers have an amazingly rich array of opportunities to save energy and money: rooftop solar, community solar, PACE financing, EVs, super-efficient HVAC, cool roofs and more. Utilities and their regulators are pioneering new partnerships with financing partners, solar companies and other third parties. Connected home players are also entering the consumer energy savings market.
Central to all of these consumer offerings are monetary savings, which must be presented and productized with data on the consumer's actual energy use. WattzOn looks forward to playing a leadership role by providing secure and private data transfer that can be relied on by all parties, and by active participation in key industry consortia and standards bodies, such as the Green Button Alliance. A new ecosystem is forming that includes a changing utility business model, strong access to consumer financing for energy-smart products, and broader and deeper consumer engagement in energy savings. WattzOn looks forward to enabling data-driven products in this fast-changing sector.
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| Edwin Poot and Marcel E. Smit |
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On 21 July, Energyworx, providers of SaaS-based energy data management and energy intelligence solutions that help utility and energy companies navigate and monetize the energy transition, announced a
€
1 million Series A funding round led by venture capital firm henQ. Energyworx will use the new funding to scale its U.S. and European operations, including the opening of a new office in San Francisco. Energyworx has appointed Marcel E. Smit as CEO. Founder, Edwin Poot, has been named Chief Visionary Officer and will focus on the company's long-term product strategy. In June, Energyworx was coined a "Rock Star" of Grid Edge World Forum 2016 held in San Jose, California; read the company's re-cap here and see Edwin Poot's interview live from the event as he explains Energyworx' role in the energy transition and how the company helps customers monetize their data.
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In August, Chai Energy and Energy Upgrade California®
teamed up
to provide California residents with the tools and information they need to save energy and money on their utility bills. The two companies are inviting California utility customers to sign up for Chai Energy's popular Green Button
mobile app
. Through the offer, the first 1,000 qualified registrants will receive a Chai Energy Pro for free.
Chai Energy Pro is
a smart energy gateway that connects to the home's network and collects the customer's energy usage data in real-time (every 7 seconds) from their smart meter. Customers can then use the Chai mobile app to tag individual appliances in their homes to see energy usage of specific appliances, receive customized notifications, and be informed of any utility rebates for replacing existing inefficient appliances
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all on their mobile phone. See how the Chai Pro and Chai Energy mobile app work together on this new
video.
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| From left: Amy K. Costadone and Mimi Zhang; Power of Energy Data panel |
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On 16 August 2016, Green Button Alliance Secretary and Treasurer, Mimi Zhang of
Silver Spring Networks
and Green Button Alliance board member Amy Kight Costadone of
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) participated
in a panel discussion at the
Power of Energy Data
event in San Francisco. The session addressed utility, regulator and innovator activities and the access, use and benefit of customer energy usage data. Green Button Alliance member
UtilityAPI
assisted in coordinating the event.
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On 11 August 2016, Green Button Alliance General Manager, Jeremy J. Roberts, presented during the Department of Energy (DOE) Better Buildings' webinar: "Gold Medal Approaches for Obtaining and Using Energy Efficiency Data (101)". He discussed the ways home owners and energy managers can access their Green Button energy usage data and the benefits of utilizing these data for residences and for the commercial buildings and industrial plants (C&I) building sector. If you missed the webinar, the presentation will be available here soon.
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On 27 July 2016, Green Button Alliance members Silver Spring Networks' Mimi Zhang and Greg Brosman and Energyworx' Matt Ross presented during the Internet of Energy Virtual Summit. They joined other speakers in discussing how the Internet of Things (IoT) will impact and empower utility business models, IT and operations going forward as well as technology advances for the energy sector. Zhang and Brosman's talk addressed the topic: "Evolving Utility Smart Grid Capabilities for IoT" and Ross educated listeners during his "Cloud-based Machine Learning: Gaining Value from Diverse Data Sets" session.
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The Green Button Alliance is a proud supporter of New York REV Future 2016 being held 27-28 September in Brooklyn, New York. New York REV Future 2016 will bring together key stakeholders, technology providers, utilities and state policy makers to discuss actionable business strategies to operationalize the ongoing initiative for a clean, resilient and affordable system in New York. Green Button Alliance member Silver Spring Networks will present a case study, "REV in Action", on day one of the event. Use our exclusive discount code GREENBUTTON15 for 15% off your conference registration.
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The Green Button Alliance is a supporter of
Smart Cities Week
being held 27-29 September 2016 in Washington, D.C. Smart Cities Week delivers solutions to the urgent challenges cities face and showcases the next wave of integrated, innovative technologies that are already helping cities around the world become more compassionate, connected and sustainable. Green Button Alliance member the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative (SGCC) is moderating two sessions at the event.
Register to attend Smart Cities Week
here
.
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The White House will co-host the first White House Open Data Innovation Summit with Solutions Showcase concurrent with the Data Foundation's 4th annual open data policy conference, Data Transparency 2016 on 28 September 2016 in Washington D.C. The event will showcase recent and future open data and My Data initiative achievements, Green Button is a My Data initiative. To be considered as a speaker, solutions showcase exhibitor, or to submit a written announcement for consideration for inclusion in a White House Fact Sheet, submit here by 1 September 2016. Here is an example of a recent White House Fact Sheet that referenced Green Button achievements.
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Barry Haaser, Executive Director
Jeremy J. Roberts, General Manager
Donald F. Coffin, Technical Manager
Valdis Hellevik, PR Manager
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