by Brianna Crandall — April 4, 2012—Responding to President Obama’s call for an “all-of-the-above” strategy to help consumers reduce their energy costs, the U.S. Administration announced on March 22 that nine major utilities and electricity suppliers will commit to providing more than 15 million households access to data about their own energy use with a simple click of an online “Green Button,” with projects in the works for businesses to use the same technology. By providing consumers with information about how they are using energy, the Green Button program is intended to help reduce waste and shrink bills.
Green Button is an industry-led effort that allows electricity customers to download their household or building energy-use data in a consumer- and computer-friendly format. The utilities and electricity suppliers making new commitments include: American Electric Power; Austin Energy; Baltimore Gas and Electric; CenterPoint Energy; Commonwealth Edison; NSTAR; PECO; Reliant; and Virginia Dominion Power.
The Green Buttons programs are based on a common technical standard developed with support from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Information technology (IT) and service providers announcing commitments to support utility deployment of Green Button include Itron, OPower, Oracle, and Silver Spring Networks, joining existing commitments from Aclara and Tendril.
Green Button-enabled Web and smartphone applications promise to help consumers 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.
Companies that announced 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.
The newly announced commitments build on similar commitments made in January by Pacific Gas & Electric Company, Southern California Edison, Oncor, Pepco Holdings Inc., Glendale Water and Power, and San Diego Gas & Electric to provide the capability to nearly 12 million households in 2012.
