If your work depends on utility data, you already know the hard part is not the analysis. It is getting the data in the first place. A single client can hold accounts across several utilities, each with its own portal, its own login, its own file format, and its own idea of what a usage export should look like. Multiply that by a portfolio of buildings or a book of clients and the collection problem quickly becomes larger than the work you were actually hired to do.
This guide explains how organizations in Ontario obtain consumption, usage and billing data from utilities today. It covers authorized utility connections, the Green Button standard and its two access methods, what authorization actually requires, and the practical reality of working across dozens of utilities that do not all behave the same way. It closes with how EZGB brings that data into one clean, consistent stream.
The Two Kinds of Data You Are Usually After
Before choosing a collection method, it helps to be precise about what you need. Utility data generally falls into two buckets, and they do not always come from the same place.
- Meter usage data: how much electricity or gas was consumed, often broken down by interval such as hourly or daily, sometimes finer. This is what you need for load profiles, energy modelling, measurement and verification, and consumption trends.
- Billing data: the actual charges on the bill, including the rate components, delivery charges, taxes and totals. This is what you need for cost analysis, budget tracking, invoice validation and savings reporting.
A common mistake is to assume one source gives you both. It usually does not. Usage feeds tell you how much energy moved. Bills tell you what it cost. Knowing which you need shapes every decision that follows.
Authorized Utility Connections
The cleanest way to receive data on an ongoing basis is a connection that the account holder has authorized. The customer, or someone acting on their behalf with permission, grants a third party the right to receive their data directly from the utility. Once that authorization is in place, data can flow on a schedule without anyone logging into a portal to fetch it by hand.
Authorized connections matter for two reasons. First, they respect the customer's ownership of their own data, which is the principle the whole system is built on. Second, they remove the manual step that breaks down at scale. A one-time authorization replaces a recurring chore.
Green Button: Download My Data and Connect My Data
Green Button is a data standard that defines a common format and a common way to move energy usage data. It exists so that a usage file from one utility looks like a usage file from another, instead of every provider inventing its own layout. Green Button has two access methods, and the difference between them is important.
Download My Data (DMD)
Download My Data is the manual method. A customer signs into the utility's secure website, clicks to download their usage, and receives a file in a standard XML format. It is useful for a one-time pull or an occasional check. The limitation is obvious: someone has to log in and click every time fresh data is needed, for every account.
Connect My Data (CMD)
Connect My Data is the authorized, ongoing method. The customer digitally authorizes their usage data to be shared with a chosen third party, and from then on the data can be delivered automatically without repeated logins. Connect My Data is the method that supports continuous monitoring and hands-off collection, because the authorization does the work that a person would otherwise repeat every month.
Ontario's Green Button Regulation
Ontario made Green Button a requirement rather than a nice-to-have. Under Ontario Regulation 633/21, which took effect on November 1, 2021, electricity and natural gas utilities in the province were required to implement Green Button Download My Data and Connect My Data solutions, aligned to the North American Energy Standards Board's Energy Services Provider Interface standard, by November 1, 2023. The Ontario Energy Board oversees implementation, supported by an industry working group that addresses issues as they come up.
The practical outcome is that a large set of Ontario utilities now offer a standardized way to access and share energy usage data. The Green Button Alliance has certified more than fifty Ontario-based utility platforms as conformant to the standard. That is a meaningful foundation. It is not, however, the end of the story.
What Authorization Actually Requires
Access to someone's utility data always rests on their consent. Authorization is the mechanism that records that consent and tells the utility who is allowed to receive the data. In practice, getting authorization right involves a few things worth planning for.
- The account holder must agree, and the request should make clear what data will be shared and with whom.
- You need to identify the correct account, which usually means an account number or the details the utility uses to locate it.
- Authorizations can be scoped and can be withdrawn, so a good process tracks which accounts are currently authorized and which have lapsed.
- Some data types, particularly the full billed charges, may not travel through a usage-focused authorization at all, which is where bill digitization comes in.
The Reality of 55+ Utilities and Varying Formats
Ontario has more than fifty-five utilities, and a standard on paper does not erase every difference on the ground. Even with Green Button in place, teams that collect data across many providers still run into practical variation.
- Different utilities report at different intervals, so one feed may be hourly and another daily or monthly, depending on the meter.
- Portals differ in layout and login flow, which matters whenever a manual download is still involved.
- Bills differ enormously in structure, line-item naming and layout, so the billed charges rarely arrive in a uniform shape.
- The pace and completeness of implementation is not identical everywhere, so a method that works cleanly for one account may need handling for another.
None of this is a criticism of the utilities, who are serving very different customer bases and systems. It is simply the environment any serious data program has to operate in. The work of reconciling all of it is real, and it is exactly the work that consumes analyst hours when it is done by hand.
How EZGB Standardizes It
EZGB, the Easy Green Button Connector from Screaming Power, exists to turn that fragmented landscape into a single clean stream. It collects consumption, usage and billing data through authorized utility connections and Green Button, adds bill digitization for the billed charges that usage feeds do not carry, and supports automated ongoing retrieval so data keeps arriving without manual pulls.
The point is consistency. Instead of one format per utility, you receive standardized data. Instead of one login per account, authorized connections deliver on a schedule. Instead of choosing between usage and bills, you can bring both together for the same account. EZGB delivers the result the way your systems want it, through JSON or CSV files, a REST API, SFTP, or embeddable components you can place inside your own product.
The effect on a working team is straightforward. The collection problem stops being a monthly scramble and becomes a dependable input. Analysts spend their time on analysis, integrators build on a stable feed, and the data itself is comparable across every account in the portfolio.
Get Started
If getting utility data out of Ontario's utilities has become the bottleneck in your work, EZGB is built to remove it. Visit the EZGB site to see how authorized connections, Green Button access and bill digitization come together in one clean feed, review the pricing and signup pages to find the fit for your team, and book a walkthrough to see standardized Ontario utility data flowing into your own systems. Start collecting your utility data the reliable way, and put your hours back into the analysis that matters.
For a distributor specific walkthrough, see the guide to London Hydro Green Button usage data. If your account is in Kitchener or Waterloo, the guide to Enova Power Green Button usage data covers the former Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro and Waterloo North Hydro territories.
Sources
For the full list of distributors and what each one offers, see utility companies in Ontario. Two of the most common accounts have their own walkthroughs: Hydro Ottawa for electricity and Enbridge for gas.
- Green Button Alliance, Ontario Passes Regulation that Empowers Energy Users with Green Button Energy Data Access and Sharing: https://www.greenbuttonalliance.org/news/ontario-passes-regulation-that-empowers-energy-users-with-green-button-energy-data-access-and-sharing-
- Green Button Alliance, 55 Ontario-based Utilities' Platforms Are Now Green Button Certified: https://www.greenbuttonalliance.org/news/green-button-alliance-announces-55-ontario-based-utilities-platforms-are-now-green-button-certified
- Green Button Ontario: https://greenbuttonontario.ca/
- Green Button Alliance, Connect My Data: https://www.greenbuttonalliance.org/green-button-connect-my-data-cmd
Source: greenbuttonalliance.org