Correcting Misinformation about Green Button in Ontario

Utilismart, UtilityAPI and Screaming Power are working together, along with Ontario Utilities, to establish a Green Button MYTH BUSTERS campaign to ensure Ontario’s energy data sharing strategy meets our Ministry of Energy’s timeline and is implemented effectively.

We believe the best way to implement Green Button in Ontario is to be clear on what Green Button means for Ontario Electricity and Natural Gas Utilities, market software vendors, third parties, Ontario ratepayers, and end-users. 

In the coming weeks, we will be providing FAQs on our websites and other venues in an engaging and hopefully entertaining way to explain the misconceptions in Ontario’s Green Button implementation to reduce energy costs. The province of Ontario is looking to find ways to use this data standardization regulation to create jobs and educate Ontario’s energy consumers.  

An Easier, Less Expensive Green Button

We recognize that simplifying technical implementations, standardized/secure data management and evolving the best practices for customer experience can get monotonous, and this is why we bring you the Green Button MYTH BUSTERS campaign. As we move past COVID-19 and implement digitization through Green Button, we will help Utilities reduce implementation costs and kick-off Ontario’s energy digitization party. An implementation strategy that keeps Utility costs down and clarifies a complex process is the most important step to creating a stronger relationship between the Utility, their vendors, the ratepayer, and innovation.

Rely on Experts to Claim a Place at the Head of the Line for Green Button Certification

Our FAQs will help our Ontario energy ecosystem effectively grow.  Education will allow Utilities to understand better the critical steps required to achieve their goals and create a more robust economy. The FAQs will provide valuable information on the GBA certification process and help Utilities clarify their unique role as the only party required to be Green Button certified in Ontario. As of this date, full Ontario certification at the Green Button Alliance is not ready yet. Ontario Utility vendors are not able to conduct the Green Button NEASB 3.3 certification at this time.

According to the Green Button Alliance, the certification processes and services will be available to Ontario utilities soon, so Utilities should start getting in line to be certified before November 1, 2023. To mitigate the certification-related risks, Utilities should work with Subject Matter Experts that truly understand the process and have relevant experience. Our core technologies are built utilizing the highest degree of Green Button expertise. Our Green Button Toolset is a mature, robust solution that exceeds the minimum GBA 3.3 certification for Utilities in North America.

Full certification is the only option for Ontario Utilities. Our team brings certification and integration expertise to large and small utilities to enable informed decisions while saving time and money. Our core Green Button solution already has more than 1500 third parties connected to it.  This provides additional data-driven value to utility customers. We bring education and tools to the third-party market to support Ontario-made solutions and assist in achieving Ontario’s overall short- and long-term energy, digitization and cost reduction goals.

Utilities in Ontario will require assistance in implementing Green Button data-sharing capability, including education, planning, integration, security, testing and deployment. Our FAQs will facilitate collaboration and encourage information sharing between all interested parties. Utilities that adopted NEASB ESPI 3.2 standard or have been offering Green Button “DMD” Download my Data in their customer engagement tools are required to use NEASB ESPI 3.3 standard adoption, which requires solution changes and the implementation of new data sharing concepts. These changes imply that existing data and user interfaces will evolve and will start utilizing innovative technologies by November 1, 2023. 

The new NEASB ESPI 3.3 standard brings excellent opportunities for simplified third-party data publishing and engagement, independent from legacy customer engagement portals. Our FAQs will be offering Ontario a way to demystify Ontario’s Green Button efforts to ensure a robust, transparent and competitive rollout.   

Transparency Matters

We are starting our MYTH BUSTERS campaign tour by explaining the Green Button digitization game and offering Utilities a no-myth way to understand how their specific billing system plays a part in the overall solution. As part of the campaign, we are offering an accessible forum to see the Ontario Energy Board’s (OEB) Industry-Led Working Group (IWG) evolving actions. This Working Group meets multiple times a week to help plan the Green Button rollout requirements.

We understand that this planning is time-consuming and costly to manage for anyone working on Ontario’s digitization efforts. As a result, we are offering a set of FAQs provided to the Ontario Energy Market through the OEB IWG meetings. These FAQs can be found on OEB’s website, but we want you to have easy access to them as they are the building blocks that come out of our industry-led collaboration. You can see these FAQs at www.greenbuttonontario.ca. Check our sites and socials at the end of each week for FAQ updates.

To learn more or talk to us, please visit our Partners’ websites.

UtilityAPI ‧ Energy Data for New Energy Companies
Green Button Toolset (screamingpower.ca)
Green Button Implementation from Ontario Government for Utility Data