Schneider Electric, Palatine, Ill., has formed a partnership with Chicago utility ComEd to provide ComEd customers in northern Illinois with access to their energy data through Green Button Connect My Data. Green Button is an industry-led initiative proposed by the White House to provide electricity customers with easy access to their energy usage data in a consumer-friendly and computer-friendly format.
ComEd is among the first utilities to roll-out Green Button Connect My Data, which allows customers to authorize third-party service providers to receive direct access to their energy usage analytics via the Green Button functionality. ComEd’s Energy Insights Online service provides commercial customers a more detailed analysis of their building’s energy usage and enables third-party vendors like Schneider Electric to provide services such as its automated monitoring based commissioning (aMBCx) technology with embedded fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) analytics that prioritize energy savings opportunities.
“Green Button Connect My Data, along with ComEd’s Energy Insights Online solution, provides our customers increased visibility into their energy usage, which is one of the easiest and most efficient ways we can help them produce energy savings on a large scale,” said Val Jensen, senior vice president of Customer Operations, ComEd. “As we deploy smart meters across northern Illinois, we hope to unlock even more value through data analytics that will give our business and residential customers the power to manage their energy use.”
For one example, Elmhurst Hospital is among the first of ComEd’s commercial customers to take advantage of its Energy Insights Online and Green Button Connect My Data. Using the Schneider Electric utility interface, data is pulled from different sources including three onsite ComEd smart meters with information Schneider Electric compiles every five minutes via 13,000 sensor points within the HVAC control system. Working with ComEd and Schneider Electric, Elmhurst Hospital was able to leverage these tools, and their smart meters, with zero additional investments in hardware or software, to reduce the energy costs of their 866,000-square-foot facility.
“There is a growing awareness about the value analytics can bring to energy managers to help improve energy performance,” said Greg Thompson, manager of Smart Grid Offers at Schneider Electric. “We are pleased to join efforts with ComEd to offer customers additional energy saving products and services that utilize Green Button data.”