The Green Button initiative emerged earlier this year as way to get utility customers to engage with their energy usage data. Numerous utilities have implemented the the button as a one-click portal to data access, and plenty of developers have joined them, offering up apps for customers to use to monitor and alter their day-to-day power habits.
Utility Dive drilled down through all of the companies who are participating and plucked out these ten examples of Green Button projects, who they are reaching and what kinds of engagement they encourage:
1. LUCID
With a focus on commercial customers, Lucid offers viewable real-time energy monitoring on a Building Dashboard network. The service shows energy and water usage for buildings, companies and schools, enabling users to compare and contrast their consumption and cost with that of others.
2. TXU ENERGY
TXU has created a graph to show customers how and when they use energy and the ways in which they can decrease it, saving both money for themselves and energy for everyone else. Having a smart meter installed allows users to view monthly, daily and hourly information on the MyEnergy Dashboard. Without it, users can only access monthly data.
3. ENERGYAI
Using the Green Button Connect, EnergyAi is an energy analytics company that can take a year's worth of Green Button data and, for $20, reconstruct it into a Load Analysis report that advises customers how to reduce energy consumption and costs.
4. SAN DIEGO GAS & ELECTRIC
SDG&E provides customers up to 13 months of detailed consumption data in an easy-to-read energy chart called the Green Button. Their recently released app, PowerTools, equips individuals with the tools they need to decipher data and find ways to save energy and money.
5. GENABILITY
An energy analytics solutions provider, Genability offers innovative planning on the Tariff Cloud to solar providers, energy service providers, energy suppliers, energy marketers and energy professionals looking to lower cost and consumption and become more efficient and sustainable.
6. NSTAR
NSTAR supplies customers with a Green Button on their website that tracks data from users' smart meters while they are in the midst of developing a Green Button app for smartphones. Recently, NSTAR has expanded the program to encompass Northeast Utilities' 3.5 million customers which it plans to complete by the end of the year.
7. SMART GRID LABS
The testing branch of EnerNex, Smart Grid Labs evaluates smart grid interoperability, metering, grid planning, security and efficiency. Smart Grid Labs has implemented the Green Button initiative to harness its creative strategies and high-tech research site to reduce energy consumption for utilities.
8. PACIFICORP
PacifiCorp, which services Utah, Wyoming and Idaho as Rocky Mountain Power and California, Oregon and Washington as Pacific Power, has adopted the Green Button initiative to bring energy efficiency resources to its customers. Its efficiency resources pages offer an energy usage calculator, an energy savings and environmental benefits calculator and tips to lower cost and consumption for residential and business users.
9. NATIONAL INFORMATION SOLUTIONS COOPERATIVE (NISC)
NISC received a Green Button grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to partner with two utility companies, Sawnee Electric Membership Corporation and Kootenai Electric Cooperative, in bringing detailed energy usage data to the everyday user in a consumer and computer-friendly format in an effort to streamline energy efficiency.
10. WATTZON
WattzOn is an energy engagement platform that supplies consumers with tools and recommendations for better decision-making in becoming more energy efficient and green. The free online service mines customers' data regardless of which utility company they use, compares the data to that of nearby homes' and shows the customer how to save money and energy.
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