Energy Exchange: Data access

Everyone has a role to play in fighting climate change. Farmers can use new methods to rotate their crops that keep more carbon safely in the ground. Consumers can act with their wallets – buying goods and services that produce less carbon than competitors. Our elected officials, of course, have a lot of influence in […]

Studies show that customers with access to energy-use data can save up to 18 percent on their energy bills every month. Based on a typical monthly bill of $120, households could save nearly $360 every year – a substantial chunk of change. This type of energy data is gathered by advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), specifically […]

Better Data, Better Lives. That was the theme of the second World Statistics Day celebrated two years ago on October 20th, 2015. The holiday was designed for celebration every five years, but in light of recent attacks on climate science, it is critical to showcase the value of clean energy data now, more than ever. […]

The U.S. electricity industry is experiencing unprecedented innovation and change. The grid is getting smarter and customers can play a more active role in how their electricity is made, moved, and used. Between all the initiatives that utilities, cities, and states are pursuing and the new services and products that entrepreneurs are creating, it can […]

Nicoyia Hurt, EDF Oil and Gas Health Policy Intern, contributed to this post This month marks the one year anniversary since the residents in Imperial County California did something pretty amazing. After experiencing some of the highest asthma hospitalization rates in the state, the community got together to launch the IVAN air monitoring project– a […]

EDF Schneider fellow Scott Roycroft co-authored this post California’s gas utilities have had their share of problems in recent years – so improvements in environmental impacts, operations, and safety are important to track. In 2014, the California legislature passed a law to require utility companies to publicly disclose data on gas leaks and emissions while […]

Across the U.S. more than 15 million people live within a mile of an oil or gas well – and a new app is making it easier for those people to know exactly where those wells are located within their neighborhoods. The WellFinder app uses data from state agencies to help users know not only […]

By: Jori Mendel, AT&T Smart Cities, and Chandana Vangapalli, former Environmental Defense Fund Climate Corps Fellow Technology revolutionizes the way people interact with the world. From video chats to securing homes from thousands of miles away, digital connections bring us closer to what matters most. This same connectivity can play a critical role in helping […]

The U.S. electric grid is old and frayed, yet innovative technologies – modern sensors, smart meters, and advanced telecommunications – offer hope to update it to become more modern, efficient, and clean. What all these smart-grid tools have in common is data. How we utilize the enormous quantities of information about how we move and […]

The need to plan for and design a more efficient, cleaner, and resilient electricity grid has never been greater. Our aging grid is ill-prepared to keep pace with rapid technological advances and an increasingly distributed, dynamic energy system. A greater number of customers are producing electricity themselves, demanding expanded energy choice and a more interactive […]

By Simi Rose George and Virginia Palacios  A new method of prioritizing gas infrastructure improvements is resulting in faster reductions of greenhouse gas emissions in New Jersey. Just over a year ago, we wrote about an order from the state’s Board of Public Utilities approving a settlement agreement for a $905 million, three-year pipe replacement […]

By Dick Munson

On any given day, half a million Americans lose power for two or more hours. Those blackouts cost our economy billions of dollars. 70 percent of the U.S. grid that delivers electricity to our homes and businesses is at least 25 years old, and comparatively we endure more outages than other developed nations. We suffer some 360 minutes of outages each year, compared with just 16 minutes for Korea, 15 for Germany, and 11 for Japan.

A new book – The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future – offers these and other insights about the challenges of modernizing America’s electric grid – the set of wires and transformers that transmit and deliver power. According to the author, McGill University professor and cultural anthropologist Gretchen Bakke, our current system is “worn down, it’s patched up, and every hoped-for improvement is expensive and bureaucratically bemired.”

But change could be on the horizon. With a new president and Congress taking office in January, legislation to address America’s deteriorating infrastructure, like bridges and lead-laden water pipes, will likely be debated. High on their list of priorities should be new policies encouraging private-sector investment and innovation in the electricity sector.

Here are four ideas from Bakke that the new Congress and administration should keep in mind as they consider legislation that will lay the groundwork for America’s energy future.

Fraying Wires: How Policymakers Can Fix America’s Electricity Infrastructure
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Encourage competition via data

Smart meters, internet-enabled devices that communicate detailed information to utilities about their customers’ electricity use, are a first step toward reimagining our grid, Bakke notes. Yet she also points out that the devices initially offer more benefits to the utilities than to their customers. It doesn’t have to be that way. Customers deserve access to their own smart meter data so they can gain more control over their energy use and costs. But right now, most Americans (even those with smart meters installed) don’t have access to their own energy data in a way that’s useful.

Lack of access prevents third parties and technologies, such as smart thermostats, from digesting and synthesizing data into actionable steps that increase efficiency and lower pollution. Moreover, the enormous quantities of data from these modern devices can allow state utility commissions and power companies to design rate structures and other policies that shift electricity use around the clock. This can help cut their expenses and eliminate the need for costly new and dirty “peaker” plants that operate only a few hours each year when demand is high. Policymakers should allow greater access to customer data by municipalities, third-party service providers, and customers themselves.re"]

Connect a microgrid system

Bakke pays particular attention to microgrids thereby providing greater security and reliability. She notes the U.S. military is converting all of its domestic bases to microgrids that can be “islanded” and protected during storms or other disruptions. Google is doing the same for its headquarters and data centers.

“Our grid could just as well be an amalgamation of 10,000 microgrids as a single system,” writes the author. “So long as microgrids can function interoperably with each other, and do so most of the time, they are indistinguishable from the end user’s point of view from the grid we already have. The difference is resiliency.”

Fund the race to storage

Improving the system involves far more than simply adding lots of solar panels and wind turbines. In fact, because sun and wind aren’t constant and we’re still studying how best to store electricity, these new ways of cleanly making electricity add complexity to the grid’s efficient and reliable operation. Bakke focuses on storage, which she calls the “holy grail” because “it allows us to build an electric world that…has the flexibility to move and change with whatever the 21st century will throw at us.”

Creative legislation

Bakke correctly notes that the grid is not just a technological system. She writes that it’s “also a legal one, a business one, a political one, a cultural one, and a weather-driven one.” Reforming – or, as she puts it, “reimagining” – the grid requires addressing a complex collection of integrated challenges. It requires confronting the “behemoths of old power” who will oppose any transformations that threaten their profits.

Bakke correctly notes that the grid is not just a technological system.

She does not claim to know what the grid will look like in 30 years. Yet she argues “we now live in the era of infrastructural dreaming” of a “grid so jam-packed with computerization that it sparkles.”

She forsees a common platform that “would need to be open to all the strange sorts of things people are dreaming up and building today (from vehicle to grid-enabled self-driving car pods to nanogrids) and to the boring old stuff we’re stuck with for the moment (like natural gas combustion plants and old coal or nuclear).”

Bakke’s perspective is critical as both Republicans and Democrats increasingly discuss ways to improve and upgrade our nation’s infrastructure. While most of those debates focus on roads and water treatment facilities, perhaps the most important infrastructure is the grid.

Electricity is critical to our modern economy. The U.S. can no longer afford frequent blackouts. It needs to integrate sustainable and non-polluting resources. It must empower both consumers and entrepreneurs. It requires, according to Bakke, “a self-healing, processor-dense, intelligent grid.”

By Jim Marston

Each year since 1981, the United Nations (UN) recognizes an International Day of Peace on September 21. The day is intended to strengthen peace both within and among nations.

As an environmental advocate, I can’t help but think about the effects of climate change on the current state of global peace. And while there are a few climate deniers out there, those who have looked at the science are saying climate change poses a serious threat to global security and peace.

Fortunately, the UN agrees – which is why they chose to focus this year’s International Peace Day on Sustainable Development Goals. Unanimously adopted by all 193 UN member states, the Sustainable Development Goals are broken down into 17 focus areas and are part of a broader agenda to fight inequality, injustice, and climate change by 2030.

Goal 7 – “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all” – is a hugely important part of fostering global peace. The world needs affordable, reliable electricity to heat, cool, and power our homes, and to encourage economic growth. But we also need this electricity to be clean, modern, and efficient, so it doesn’t pollute our communities and exacerbate climate change.

Here are four ways the U.S. is doing our part to achieve an affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy system for all:

Why Clean Energy is Center Stage on International Day of Peace
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• Affordability: In rural, poverty-persistent parts of the country, energy efficiency is the most direct way to save people money and reduce energy use, but it is often overlooked when families face hard choices about where to spend their money. On-bill financing is one solution that’s helping Americans finance energy efficiency upgrades without the burden of upfront costs. Upgrades are paid for over time (via utility bills) from the resulting energy savings of efficiency improvements. The program reduces energy use and saves people money, which is especially important in rural communities where median household incomes are shrinking compared to their urban and suburban counterparts. In North Carolina, non-profits like Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and electric cooperatives (or “co-ops,” which supply power to 42 million Americans in rural areas) are partnering to expand on-bill financing.

• Reliability: Electricity touches everything we do. So when the grid goes down, the effects can range anywhere from inconvenient to life-threatening. With the help of smart meters, which now exist in nearly half of U.S. households and deliver detailed energy-use data to utilities, we can begin to identify outages faster and with great precision (meaning shorter outages). Smart meters can also enable energy management tools like demand response – which pays people to reduce energy when the electric grid is stressed – that can help improve reliability and reduce outages. New York recently approved an historic plan by its largest utility to distribute smart meters to millions of homes. This move will help increase efficiency, improve reliability, and lower pollution.

• Sustainability: An estimated 6% of U.S. energy use is water-related. That’s equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 40 million Americans. Ensuring a sustainable future means addressing the way we manage our electricity and our water – part of what’s known as the “energy-water nexus.” Based in Austin, Texas, Pecan Street, Inc., the nation’s largest energy research network and an EDF partner, is studying and piloting some of the same strategies that are helping the energy sector get smart. Just like smart energy meters, smart water meters can help residents conserve resources by giving them access to meaningful data about when and how they use water. By saving water, we can save energy, too, which means fewer polluting power plants.

• Modernity: A key aspect of modern energy is that it should be accessible to all. While the price of solar panels has fallen 80 percent since 2008, many Americans reside in multi-unit buildings, or don’t own a home on which to install solar panels. But the solar game is changing and new models are emerging. Community solar, defined as “a solar-electric system that provides power and/or financial benefit to, or is owned by, multiple community members,” presents a unique opportunity to bring solar access to the masses. Cities like Los Angeles, California and San Antonio, Texas are actively working to expand community solar. And nationally, community solar is predicted to more than double between 2015 and 2016.

Global consensus

These examples reveal the new look of energy in America. Other nations are making clean energy progress, too, though their circumstances vary. For example, in Lesotho, Southern Africa, clean energy sometimes looks like solar panels on homes in rural areas that can’t be reached by vehicles. In Chennai, India, clean energy can be seen in the solar steam cooking system in a home-school for 650 orphans.

Yet, despite regional differences, this International Day of Peace – with Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy at center stage – reminds us that around the world, efforts to nurture a safer, more prosperous future are cut from the same cloth. It’s also a reminder that the world agrees with Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon’s message: “Affordable, clean energy is the golden thread that links economic growth, increased social equity, and a healthy environment.”

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post to mark the occasion of the one-year anniversary of the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, or, officially, "Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development"). The SDGs represent an historic agreement — a wide-ranging roadmap to sustainability covering 17 goals and 169 targets — but stakeholders must also be held accountable for their commitments. To see all the posts in the series, visit http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/sustainable-development-goals.

By EDF Blogs

By Virginia Palacios and Holly Pearen

Plastic pipeline being placed in a trench.

The tragic 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion served as proof of how a small pipeline leak combined with human error can cause a devastating disaster.  This has led the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to propose new regulations for gas pipelines across the country in order to prevent another major pipeline catastrophe.

At the same time, utilities are beginning to adopt advanced technologies and methods that provide better data to experts —  helping to prevent accidents that threaten public health and safety.  If PHMSA requires operators to use these emerging leak detection technologies and quantification and analytical methods, we could see improved utility safety programs and a decline incidents related to human error.

Qualitative intelligence + Quantitative data

A new study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) finds that readily available technologies can enhance the information available at pipeline operators’ fingertips and reduce the opportunity for human error by using existing data on failure histories, customer calls, and condition-assessments to manage their pipeline system with more transparency. This, in turn, takes out some of the guess work that experts might use to make subjective recommendations about pipeline safety.

Operators can also integrate spatial analytics with information about the pipeline’s condition to get a scientifically rigorous snapshot of pipeline risks in near real-time to inform investment planning and better prioritize where pipeline replacement projects take place.  The PwC report also says data from advanced leak detection technology can be added to traditional utility data sets and analyzed to provide new information on the frequency of leaks in a given area.  In fact, some operators like PG&E and CenterPoint Energy are integrating advanced leak detection and quantification data into predictive models that can help pipeline operators proactively repair or replace risky pipeline segments before they become a problem.

Altogether, the PwC study concludes that spatially-attributed data from advanced leak detection technology can offer calculable data to improve risk assessment. The methods can help experts find more gas leaks faster, improve pipeline integrity and reduce risks to public health and safety.

Improving pipeline safety nationwide

Some utilities have already started implementing spatial analytics, advanced leak detection, and leak quantification methods for infrastructure management to improve the safety and integrity of the gas systems – which should be the standard nationwide.

PHMSA has deferred rulemaking on leak detection to a subsequent, as yet unscheduled process. But there are several places in the current proposed gas pipeline safety rules where the agency could incorporate leading leak detection and quantification practices:

• Threat identification, including consideration of leak and failure history
• Use of “objective, traceable, verifiable and validated information and data” that helps to reduce bias and human error in decision making
• Additional measures that must be taken to prevent pipeline failure or reduce consequences of failure in areas that would not normally be a high priority
• Surveying for leaks with methane analyzers for low-pressure pipelines

PHMSA’s proposed rules are long overdue, and if adopted intact would greatly improve pipeline safety. However, the rules could reduce risks even further if they included references and requirements to use spatially-attributed, advanced leak detection and quantification data.

While engineers and on-the-ground professional analysis will always be important for protecting pipelines, current technologies can provide a useful backstop to support decisions that can have serious consequences.

 

By Diane Regas

As rapid changes in energy technology – both in renewable and fossil fuel sources – transforms the way we power our lives, we have a chance to leave our children a prosperous world and reduce the effects of climate change. But, to scale fast enough, we need smart policies – at all levels of government.

National policies are essential to raise our level of ambition, put a price on carbon, limit emissions from key sectors, and spur innovation. For example, the Clean Power Plan would accelerate the adoption of clean energy technologies. But, many states are taking strides to promote innovative technologies and paving the way for national policy.

1. Dynamic Pricing

For 20 years, the Nobel prize-winning theory of dynamic pricing has benefitted a range of industries from hotel bookings on Orbitz and Amazon’s popular item pricing to surge fares on Uber and many more. Dynamic pricing is a key tool to maximize the market opportunity for a range of clean technologies, but most state public utility commissions have been slow to take advantage of this tool.

EDF is advocating for dynamic pricing in target states around the country. One example is California, where, by 2019, nearly nine million residential customers will have “time-of-use” as their default pricing. Studies show this type of dynamic pricing scheme alone could shave peak residential power demand by about 10 percent. And, in addition to other policies we’ve championed, it convinced state leaders that it is feasible to raise California’s renewable energy goal to 50 percent. We estimate that these victories will cut the state’s overall greenhouse gas footprint by about seven percent.

1. Access to Big Data

The grid of the future envisions home appliances, electric vehicles, rooftop solar, and smart thermostats operating seamlessly with the power grid. And, today, over 50 million smart meters connect American homes and businesses to the grid. Unfortunately, many electric companies don’t make it easy for customers to see their own data or to share it with energy management services that can help reduce costs and pollution.

3 Policies Driving Innovation in the Electricity Sector
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In Illinois, EDF worked with a customer-advocacy group called Citizens Utility Board to develop our Open Data Access Framework that’s now been adopted by state regulators and local utilities. Energy entrepreneurs like Nest and Google plan to use this data transparency to help customers save energy and money. And EDF is working to replicate the framework in other key states.

1. Incentives for Efficiency

You get what you pay for. So if states want to reduce the air pollution that comes from generating electricity, shouldn’t they make it possible for electric utilities to earn more by polluting less? That seems like a no-brainer, but many of today’s incentives point exactly the wrong way. If utilities help promote energy efficiency, for example, they sell less electricity and earn less.

We do not have to choose between cleaner air, a thriving economy, or shared prosperity; we can have it all.

EDF and its partners worked with the state of Illinois to link a major electric utility’s compensation to its environmental performance, and developed a unique new metric for linking greenhouse gas reductions to clean energy. It’s the first time this has been done, but it won’t be the last, because EDF is now pursuing this pay-for-performance approach with other states, too, including New York and California, and we’re aspiring to make it the standard nationwide.

We do not have to choose between cleaner air, a thriving economy, or shared prosperity; we can have it all. We just need smart policies to help drive innovations and technologies that can make the clean energy future a reality.

To learn more about policies driving innovation in the electricity sector, please join Diane at the Brainstorm E conference today (5/17/16), where she’ll be speaking on the panel, Living with Fossil Fuels in a Carbon Constrained World at 12:25 PT.

Photo source: Grid Alternatives

By EDF Blogs

By: David Kolata, Executive Director of Citizens Utility Board, and Andrew Barbeau, President of The Accelerate Group, LLC, and senior clean energy consultant to EDF

Knowledge is power – especially when it comes to electricity. And as Illinois’ biggest electric utility installs four million new digital, advanced meters across the state, people are on the brink of obtaining the intelligence they need to maximize the benefits of this smart grid technology.

The Citizens Utility Board (CUB) and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) have brokered an agreement with Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) that could catapult Illinois to the national forefront in providing households with real-time data on their electricity use. The deal is part of the “Open Data Access Framework” for protecting, collecting, and sharing energy-use data, which has recently gained ground but is still awaiting final approval from the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC).

About two years after CUB and EDF asked the ICC to institute the framework, we’re pleased ComEd has embraced using the national “Green Button Connect” standard for third-party data access. We hope this watershed agreement leads to a surge in innovations that help people reap the full savings potential of the smart grid.

As a result of the arrangement, ComEd will now furnish its customers with actual and easily digestible information on their energy use in nearly real-time fashion. Under the new standards, people will be able to access the data on the Internet within an hour of using the electricity – and directly on their advanced meters within just 60 seconds.

Armed with this data, people can more effectively monitor and lower electricity costs on their own—or let third parties (think revolutionary new smartphone apps) do it for them.

For instance, the data will help customers keep attuned to hourly fluctuations in energy prices, allowing them to be more nimble at adjusting their habits at home to dodge the most expensive periods of the day. Or they might use an app that sends notifications to help them reduce energy use and save money during periods of high demand. This is where the smart grid can produce its biggest rewards for customers, but the opportunity is contingent on the kind of information access embodied in the Open Data Access Framework.

Of course, user privacy is sacrosanct. By designating ComEd customers as the controller of their own data, the proposal scrupulously upholds security. At the same time, it gives them the prerogative to securely share their data if they want to capitalize on savings opportunities.

In addition to opening the door to smarter energy choices, the agreement with ComEd represents an important milestone in efforts to unleash the money-saving promise of Illinois’ emerging smart grid. Advancements like this exemplify why our organizations believe the smart grid – as long as it is coupled with careful regulatory oversight and accountability – is a wise investment for Illinoisans.

By Dick Munson

Source: Green Button

Data may be the most promising and powerful tool to advance energy efficiency, but we’ve barely begun to scratch the surface of its potential. Fortunately, more and more customers across the country are obtaining access to information on their electricity usage and pricing data, and Pennsylvania may be one step closer to harnessing this resource.

EDF and Mission:data – a national coalition of technology companies that advance the use of energy data – recently encouraged the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) to empower customers with data in an electronic form. Specifically, we are proposing the PUC adopt the Open Data Access Framework, which clarifies the type of electricity usage data all Pennsylvania customers and authorized third-parties have access to and how the data should be provided. Based on widely-adopted national standards, the Framework can help Pennsylvania effectively utilize and get the most out of its energy data.

Data, technology, and potential savings

Data access is central to customers realizing value from a utility’s investments in advanced energy measurement, and technology can further unlock the potential. But most people do not have the time to become an expert energy analyst simply to identify cost-effective efficiency opportunities. Therefore, most of us will rely on technologies, such as smart thermostats, and third parties to digest and synthesize meter data into actionable steps that increase efficiency, save money, and cut pollution.

That’s why EDF worked with diverse stakeholders to develop the Open Data Access Framework, which sets standards for:

• customer authorization,
• types of data utilities should collect and share,
• data format,
• methods of delivery,
• timeliness, and
• data security.

The proposed framework protects individuals’ privacy as people can choose whether or not to share their information with third party companies who process this data and provide related services. Rather than assume a person will adjust their energy usage in response to smart meter data, companies like Bright Power, Nest, and Bidgely help automate the process for them.

Why focus on the people side of the energy equation? By some estimates, up to 40 percent of the benefits of smart meters lie in demand-side customer savings enabled by data access. A study by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy demonstrates providing customers access to their electricity data in electronic format, combined with technology tools to interpret and manage that information, can yield household savings of 12 percent or more.

Some third party companies are already taking advantage of the possible savings in commercial buildings. Lucid Design Group, for example,40 percent has used interval data to achieve energy savings of 27 percent. Similarly, a study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory shows 17 percent median savings in commercial buildings from "energy information systems" among 28 individual sites.

Empowering #Pennsylvanians through increased energy data access
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Green Button Connect

The Open Data Access Framework serves as a complement to the Green Button Connect My Data, part of national standards developed by the U.S. Department of Energy “to provide utility customers with easy and secure access to their energy usage information.” Such standards help avoid a divided, inconsistent market that would impede innovation and competitive solutions. Essentially, Green Button sets the technical standards for sharing data, while the Framework adds agreements about data authorizations for sharing, timeliness, and ownership.

Within the past several months, Green Button Connect My Data has been implemented by three of California’s largest utilities across their entire service territories, as well as by PEPCO in Washington, D.C. for commercial and industrial users. The Illinois Commerce Commission is advancing the Open Data Access Framework, and both Commonwealth Edison and Ameren Illinois have publicly committed to implement Green Button Connect My Data by the end of 2015. By the end of this year, data access standards will be enabled for approximately 40 percent of the 60 million smart meter customers in the U.S., signaling much progress has been made but there is still a ways to go.

In addition to these state efforts, President Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum directing the implementation of Green Button for exchanging energy use data of federal facilities. The Memorandum requires agencies to coordinate with local utilities to use Green Button and, in regions where Green Button is not available, the General Services Administration and Federal Energy Management Program are required to conduct business internally using the Green Button format.

Clearly, standardizing access to energy use data has made significant strides in the U.S. recently, and Pennsylvania would do well to join the trend. The full potential of energy efficiency cannot be realized until people can obtain access to their data and work with third parties to advance data-driven energy management solutions. Energy data can – and should – be provided to customers in ways that empower them to save money and cut pollution, without sacrificing their privacy and security. The Open Data Access Framework can help us get there in Pennsylvania.

By Dick Munson

Source: Alex Rumford

Energy data collected via smart meters could lead to services that improve people’s lives and cut harmful carbon pollution. This is true if customers have easy access to the energy data they need to control their own energy use and reduce their electricity bills – which isn’t always the case.

When the Illinois General Assembly passed the Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act in 2011, local utilities ComEd and Ameren touted their many benefits, including greater control over peak energy load, electric grid resiliency, and cost savings resulting from the energy conservation efforts of their electricity customers. Now that smart meter deployments are well underway, utilities need to enable the many benefits of smart meters by empowering customers with easy access to their own energy data.

To facilitate this endeavor, EDF and Citizens Utility Board (CUB) joined forces to develop the Open Data Access Framework, a first-of-its-kind proposal, which the groups presented to the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) on Friday, August 15th.

Knowledge is power

The Framework sets a minimum state regulatory standard to ensure consumers can quickly obtain smart meter data in convenient forms, either directly from the meter or through the internet, a web portal, or mobile applications. This data includes insight for customers into their electricity consumption – how much are they using and when – and could help unlock new third-party businesses and services to help consumers better understand and manage their home energy use.  Combined with smart thermostats and other smart appliances, this new framework has the power to transform Illinois’ electricity system.

The framework declares:

• The customer as the principal owner of home energy consumption data, and the utility as the guardian of such data
• Customers should have access to their electricity consumption data – in machine-readable formats – in as short intervals as possible, with 15-minute intervals recommended, but never in intervals greater than one-hour
• Utilities should provide data as quickly as possible to customers – real-time if accessed directly from the smart meter, or within an hour if through the internet

Unlocking energy data

This new standard could make Illinois the first state that requires utilities to adopt, at a minimum, a national standard data access protocol, such as Green Button Connect.

Green Button was developed by the energy industry as a national voluntary standard to ensure consumers have timely access to their own energy data in consumer-friendly and computer-friendly formats. The first iteration, Green Button Download, provided a common standard for customers to “click a button” and download smart meter data from a utility website. The next voluntary standard, Green Button Connect, has been adopted by a handful of utilities and allows customers to request their meter data be shared directly with a third-party software or hardware provider in order to present it to them in new and unique ways. Green Button builds on policy objectives laid out in the Obama Administration's Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future and Policy Framework for the 21st Century Grid.

Access to this kind of data is a key precursor for an ambitious agenda that promotes investments in demand response, energy efficiency, and clean distributed generation. EDF and CUB hope the Open Data Access Framework will provide guidance to public utility commissions throughout the country on how to set a standard for customer access to their own data, and create a consistent, national regulatory model to enable third-party software and hardware providers to scale to all markets.

The future of real-time, automated and interactive energy technologies is here – all we have to do is unlock the data.