SVCE’s Green Button certification blog
UtilityAPI
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New certification paves the way for easier adoption of climate-change fighting technologies
Two days ago, the Green Button Alliance (GBA) certified the Silicon Valley Clean Energy Data Hive as Green Button Connect (GBC) Retail Customer compliant. The SVCE Data Hive, built by UtilityAPI, is the first GBC in the world to obtain this certification.
In 2019, the GBA published the Retail Customer update, an addition to the standard that had long been discussed within the industry. Retail Customer provides for the secure sharing of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) — information linking specific meters to the data. This update, along with other updates to streamline the customer authorization process, paved the way for the more widespread adoption of the GBC standard that is now underway across the United States and Canada.
The previous version of the GB standard called for the exchange of anonymous usage data. Someone requesting the data could download, for example, intervals for 20 meters. But they wouldn’t know which meter went with which intervals. Thus, anonymity and usefulness were at odds, with the latter taking the short end of the stick. The fully featured Retail Customer standard thrusts the balance back toward usefulness.
UtilityAPI considers the Data Hive to be a “fully-featured” GBC because it offers the features necessary to make an impact on climate change.
“The recognition of the Data Hive as Green Button Connect Retail Customer compliant validates the secure data sharing process that the tool offers,” said Justin Zagunis, SVCE Director of Decarbonization and Grid Innovation Programs. “And having an easy data sharing mechanism in place for both the installer and customer helps our community continue transitioning away from fossil fuels to clean electricity.”
The SVCE Data Hive always offered safe, secure sharing of PII, even before the GBA certified it as compliant with the Retail Customer GBC standard. UtilityAPI built it to do so, as it does for all of its GBC implementations. “SVCE is leading the world in showing what a grid-of-the-future can be. The Data Hive getting GBA-certified reinforces that SVCE’s innovations are safe and secure,” says Daniel Roesler, founder and CTO of UtilityAPI.
In 2021, UtilityAPI applied to the GBA for certification of the new standard for the SVCE Data Hive. The Data Hive was first in line for certification when the GBA updated their test suite. After the Data Hive was certified, UtilityAPI’s GBCs for National Grid, Fort Collins Municipal Utilities and Peninsula Clean Energy were certified as Green Button Connect Retail Customer compliant as well. Individuals and businesses that download Data Hive data, or data from any certified GBC implementation, can get useful data that helps them move forward with their climate change-fighting innovations quicker, more easily, and more cheaply.
In 2019, the GBA published the Retail Customer update, an addition to the standard that had long been discussed within the industry. Retail Customer provides for the secure sharing of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) — information linking specific meters to the data. This update, along with other updates to streamline the customer authorization process, paved the way for the more widespread adoption of the GBC standard that is now underway across the United States and Canada.
The previous version of the GB standard called for the exchange of anonymous usage data. Someone requesting the data could download, for example, intervals for 20 meters. But they wouldn’t know which meter went with which intervals. Thus, anonymity and usefulness were at odds, with the latter taking the short end of the stick. The fully featured Retail Customer standard thrusts the balance back toward usefulness.
UtilityAPI considers the Data Hive to be a “fully-featured” GBC because it offers the features necessary to make an impact on climate change.
“The recognition of the Data Hive as Green Button Connect Retail Customer compliant validates the secure data sharing process that the tool offers,” said Justin Zagunis, SVCE Director of Decarbonization and Grid Innovation Programs. “And having an easy data sharing mechanism in place for both the installer and customer helps our community continue transitioning away from fossil fuels to clean electricity.”
The SVCE Data Hive always offered safe, secure sharing of PII, even before the GBA certified it as compliant with the Retail Customer GBC standard. UtilityAPI built it to do so, as it does for all of its GBC implementations. “SVCE is leading the world in showing what a grid-of-the-future can be. The Data Hive getting GBA-certified reinforces that SVCE’s innovations are safe and secure,” says Daniel Roesler, founder and CTO of UtilityAPI.
In 2021, UtilityAPI applied to the GBA for certification of the new standard for the SVCE Data Hive. The Data Hive was first in line for certification when the GBA updated their test suite. After the Data Hive was certified, UtilityAPI’s GBCs for National Grid, Fort Collins Municipal Utilities and Peninsula Clean Energy were certified as Green Button Connect Retail Customer compliant as well. Individuals and businesses that download Data Hive data, or data from any certified GBC implementation, can get useful data that helps them move forward with their climate change-fighting innovations quicker, more easily, and more cheaply.