Green Button
The Green Button allows customers to export their billing data into CSV or XML format. It is typically located beneath the Data Browser. When a customer clicks the Green Button link, a Download my data section displays and allows the customer to choose between downloading their data in CSV or XML format.
On this page:
Requirements
- Billing Frequency: The customer must be billed monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly.
- Data History: A customer must have one historical bill.
- AMI Data: AMI data is required for additional download options to appear. AMI data requires the Digital Self-Service Energy Management AMI cloud service. See Getting Started for details.
- Rates Data: The Rates Engagement cloud service must be purchased and customers' rates must be modeled for cost information to display for interval AMI data reads in the exported file.
- Enhanced Solar Data: Utilities must be on the latest data transfer specifications in order for enhanced solar data IMPORT and EXPORT columns to display in the exported file. Your Delivery Team will work with you to identify which data transfer specifications you need.
User Experience
This section describes the user experience for dual fuel customers who have non-AMI data and no rates modeled.
Green Button
Customers can select the Green Button link to download their billing or AMI data to CSV or XML formats.
The Green Button link is based on an initiative called the "Green Button initiative," an industry-led effort that responds to a White House call-to-action to provide electricity customers with easy access to their energy usage data. The idea is that customers should be able to go to their utility web site and securely download their own detailed energy usage information in a platform-neutral format (specifically, XML). Customers can then send this data to third-party web apps or developers to create visualizations or perform additional analysis. See The Green Button for Residential Use for more information on how this data is intended to be used.
Download My Data
When a customer clicks the Green Button link, a Download my data section displays and allows the customer to choose between downloading their data in CSV or XML format. The customer can then click Export to download the file. Depending on which web browser they are using, they may be prompted to save the file to their desktop rather than seeing an automatic download to their Downloads folder.
Downloaded File Contents: The data within the download includes the fuel and resource types, applicable dates, energy use and costs, and any applicable notes for each data point.
Note: Green Button supports the download of data in units of measure that are applicable for the customer's resource types. For information on the units of measure supported by Oracle Utilities, see the Oracle Utilities Opower Premise Data Transfer specification.
Solar Data and Multi-Register Meters: The downloaded spreadsheet may have additional columns for customers with multi-register meters and solar technology. See Solar Data and Multi-Register Meters below for details.
Estimated Reads: If a customer has estimated reads, then this is indicated in the file that is downloaded. An estimated read is an approximate energy or resource use amount calculated based on what a customer has consumed in the past, rather than what the customer has consumed in the present billing period. The Notes column indicates any applicable estimates. Otherwise, the Notes column is left blank.
AMI Data: Customers with AMI data have additional data download options. Such customers can also see virtual bills, which provide in-progress billing information since their last bill period.
- Export Usage for a Bill Period: A bill period can be selected from a drop-down list. Customers can also select Since your last bill to view costs and use that has not yet been included on a bill. By default, up to 30 days of in-progress billing data can be downloaded, which can be configured to align with the length of a customer's billing cycle.
- Export Usage for a Range of Days: A start and end date can be selected to define the range of days.
Cost Information: If the utility has rates modeled, customers can download a file containing AMI data and cost information. The customer may see daily or subdaily cost information, depending on the granularity of their AMI data. For example, customers with daily AMI data will see daily cost values, while customers with subdaily AMI data will see cost values broken down into the appropriate intervals, such as per hour, half hour, or quarter of an hour.
User Experience Variations
Multiple Accounts and Service Points
If a customer has multiple accounts, the customer can download a file for each account. Note, however, that the feature does not display a menu for switching between accounts. Users must switch between their accounts by clicking an account selector hosted on the utility website.
Dual fuel customers can download data separately for their gas and electricity usage. If a customer has two or more service points of the same fuel type (for example, a customer with one for regular electric usage and one for an electric vehicle), then the user can download data for the service point that is being currently viewed in the Data Browser. If a dual fuel customer is in the combined view in the Data Browser and clicks to download data, then two files are generated: one file for electricity and one file for gas.
Solar Data and Multi-Register Meters
The downloaded spreadsheet may have additional columns for customers with multi-register meters and solar technology. This is because multi-register meters can provide more details about energy use within an interval of time, such as the amount of energy consumed from the grid, as well as the amount sent back to the grid due to solar power.
When support for multi-register meter customers is enabled, the downloaded spreadsheet displays columns for IMPORT (energy consumed from the grid) and EXPORT (energy sent back to the grid). The spreadsheet also displays columns for the start and end time of each interval if the customer has subdaily AMI data.