TAKE POWER OVER ENERGY – USE THE GREEN BUTTON

March 24, 2012 on 1:11 am | In Act Locally, Green Cities, Green Houses, Money, Reasons to Love L.A., Solutions, Statistics, Trends, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

By Jodi Summers

The White House issued a challenge to the nation’s utilities > to allow customers more access to their own energy data. California utilities are the first to step up. Welcome the Green Button. This online tool from Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and Pacific Gas & Electric will allow consumers and businesses to see how much electricity they’re using and to download the data so that we can figure out how to use less.

The Green Button allows customers to download of personalized energy usage data through its secure website, My Energy. Developers and third parties will be able receive energy usage data from customers in machine-readable form.

The utilities’ goal is for customers to better understand how their consumption changes over the day, week and seasons. This data, in conjunction with smart meters, which transmit energy usage information in real time, should give .customers the tools to control usage, cut costs and conserve energy…

The Green Button project “is one of many initiatives designed to offer our customers choice, convenience and control,” Ted Reguly, SDG&E’s director of customer programs and assistance, said in a statement.

Here’s how it works: After logging in, customers can click on the Green Button and download up to 13 months of their detailed electricity usage data, which can be segmented down to 15-minute intervals. The three utilities are the first in the nation to adopt the technology, which uses a cloud platform developed by Tendril, a Boulder, Colo.-based company.

“Green Button marks the beginning of a new era of consumer control over energy use, and local empowerment to cut waste and save money,” observes Aneesh Chopra, U.S. Chief Technology Officer. “With the benefits of open data standards, American app developers and other innovators can apply their creativity to bring the smart grid to life for families—not only in California but in communities all across the Nation.”

The Green Button may be the first step in a grand plan to take energy data and standardize a national energy the format open and make it readily available to consumers.

Standardizing and freeing the data can create an ecosystem for developers to use that data to create apps that can deliver new services and products. The line of thinking is > the internet has thrived because of open data and standardized information systems. Delivering that energy data directly back to consumers is expected to lead to energy-efficiency measures that may change a consumers’ energy-consumption behavior.

The Green Button project “is one of many initiatives designed to offer our customers choice, convenience and control,” notes Ted Reguly, SDG&E’s director of customer programs and assistance.

The three utilities are the first in the nation to adopt the technology, which uses a cloud platform developed by Tendril, a Boulder, Colo.-based company. The Green Button was inspired by the government’s success with its Blue Button initiative, which allows veterans instant access to their health care data.”

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http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-energy-saving-tool-20120118,0,1638500.story

http://www.pge.com/myhome/myaccount/using/thegreenbutton/

http://gigaom.com/cleantech/the-green-button-project-launches-to-unleash-energy-data/

http://www.socalmultiunitrealestateblog.com/?p=1902

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/california-gets-the-green-button/

http://www.emeter.com/smart-grid-watch/2012/green-button-goes-live-how-can-consumers-use-it/

http://www.santamonicapropertyblog.com/?p=4254

http://blog.heliopower.com/

http://www.socalgreenrealestateblog.com/?p=1987

http://www.pgecurrents.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/300x200_GreenButton.jpg

http://www.weaversway.coop/blog/uploaded_images/600px-Smiley.svg-721880.png

http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/smartmeter-v01-pho1.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NnRqMN9C7dE/TqyMc0JrWzI/AAAAAAAAFZY/-S7tQ0QpICE/s1600/SMART+AC+PROGRAM+AWARD+007.jpg

 

6 Comments »

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  1. Can I push the button?

    Comment by Turf — March 25, 2012 #

  2. The power is in the pointer.

    Comment by Heatnes — March 25, 2012 #

  3. Cut the expenses on your commercial property with this great gift > “The Building Performance Tracking Handbook.” If your business seeks to improve the energy and system operation of their buildings > building performance tracking is the first step. Using these tools, operating costs will fall, asset values will grow, and market differentiation improve.

    “The Building Performance Tracking Handbook” was developed by the California Commissioning Collaborative with funding from the state’s Energy Commission and can be applied to commercial buildings throughout the country. It allows operators to understand how their buildings are running and improve standard operating procedures and energy usage for a building.

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    http://www.socalindustrialrealestateblog.com/?p=1034

    Comment by Jodi Summers — March 25, 2012 #

  4. The Department of Energy has made up to $5.2 million available in fiscal year 2012 to develop improved building efficiency technologies. This funding opportunity includes advanced heating and cooling systems and high efficiency insulation, windows, and roofs. The funding will advance the research and development, demonstration, and manufacture of innovative building technologies to speed the commercialization of affordable, high-performance products.

    Comment by DOE — March 31, 2012 #

  5. Majorities of Americans say that they are knowledgeable about energy sources, but are they making changes and taking advantage of what is out there to monitor their own usage? Majorities of Americans are doing some basic things like turning off lights, televisions or other appliances when not in use (82%), replacing incandescent bulbs with fluorescent ones (58%), using power strips (56%), looking for ENERGY STAR labels when replacing appliances (55%) and using low watt bulbs (54%). But there are other things majorities of Americans are not doing.

    These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,056 adults surveyed online between February 6 and 13, 2012 by Harris Interactive.

    Less than half of Americans have installed a programmable thermostat (37%), sealed gaps in floors or walls around pipes or electric wiring (34%), installed low-flow faucets (29%), energy efficient windows (28%) or added insulation to an attic, crawl space or accessible exterior windows (27%). And just in one ten U.S. adults (11%) have conducted a home energy evaluation or audit. There are certain regional differences as well. For example, over half of Southerners (55%) change their air filters monthly in comparison to just 27% of Easterners and 28% of Westerners. Three in five Westerners (59%) use low wattage light bulbs compared to just 48% of Easterners and, two in five of those living in the West (40%) have installed low-flow faucets compared to just 25% of those in the East and 23% in the Midwest.

    Comment by Harris Polls — March 31, 2012 #

  6. The U.S. Green Building Council announces its support for the White House-inspired, industry-led Green Button initiative, which today gained new momentum with nine utilities committing to empower more than 15 million customers with their own energy data. Green Button represents an important and practical effort to help electricity customers access, understand and best utilize their household and commercial energy usage information.
    “USGBC shares the goals of the initiative, which are to promote consumer control over energy use and provide opportunities to cut waste and save money,” said Chris Pyke, Ph.D., vice president of research at USGBC. “By providing easy access to data on building energy usage, the Green Button initiative can support consumer decision making, enable benchmarking and inform energy efficiency investments.”
    Green Button promises to create new opportunities to advance green building and provide a valuable new tool for practitioners. Wide-spread access to energy use information will help homeowners and commercial property managers understand their electrical energy consumption and create the starting point for concrete steps to reduce wasted energy, save money, improve performance and ultimately create buildings that are better for people and the environment.

    Comment by MLong — April 19, 2012 #

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