Green Button paves way for new commercial energy tools

California's largest utilities have launched a "Green Button" feature to let consumers download their own detailed energy usage information. The project, championed by U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra, standardizes the deliver of household energy data and is seen as a catalyst to create an ecosystem for app developers to produce new services and products. A growing number of utilities and technology vendors have committed to using and extending the program to give residential and commercial energy users secure access to their energy usage data. By downloading energy data in a simple, universal format, the Green Button program is designed to encourage innovation among third-party developers to build energy management applications and platforms. First launched in January the initial list of supporters included mostly California utilities, with a total of more than 12 million energy customers. Last week’s announcement added nine more utilities, including American Electric Power, Austin Energy, Baltimore Gas and Electric, CenterPoint Energy, Commonwealth Edison, NSTAR, PECO, Reliant and Virginia Dominion Power, which together bring an additional 15 million customers.