How to get Hydro One usage data: Green Button and the Interval Data Portal

Hydro One's service territory covers most of rural and northern Ontario plus a long list of acquired local utilities, so if you manage facilities outside the big cities, at least some of your accounts are probably Hydro One accounts. Getting usage data from them comes down to two tools the utility publishes information about: the Interval Data Portal, reached through myAccount, and Green Button, which Ontario's energy data regulation requires the utility to offer. This guide sets out what Hydro One says about each on its own public pages, what the province guarantees regardless, and what to do with the data once you have it.

One honest caveat up front. Unlike some Ontario distributors, Hydro One keeps most of its Green Button detail behind the myAccount sign-in. Its public Green Button Connect My Data landing page is a sign-in gateway (it mostly tells you to enable cookies), so this article does not invent menu names or history lengths that we could not verify. Where a detail is only visible after login, we say so and point to what the regulation requires instead.

The Interval Data Portal: hourly data through myAccount

Hydro One's Interval Data Portal page is the clearest public description of usage data the utility offers. It says the portal allows users to view their hourly energy usage at their facility for analysis and reporting, download a detailed breakdown of energy usage by meter, facility and account, create multiple reports, and schedule reports to be sent automatically via email. The same page states that access to the Interval Data Portal is now available only through the Hydro One myAccount and the "My Energy Usage" function.

Two further details on that page matter for anyone managing accounts on behalf of others. First, for representatives managing multiple accounts, Hydro One describes a universal login for all applicable accounts and service points. Second, the page gives a support contact for the portal (CICR@HydroOne.com and 1-866-922-2466) and links a user guide. If you are a consultant with authority over a client's accounts, that universal login is the path the utility itself points to.

The portal's emphasis on hourly data reflects what smart meters record. If you are deciding whether hourly reads are enough for your analysis, or whether you need something finer, our piece on smart meters and interval resolution explains what each level of resolution supports.

Green Button at Hydro One

Hydro One maintains a public page titled Green Button Connect My Data, which routes customers to sign in to myAccount to proceed. That is consistent with how Connect My Data works everywhere: the authorization is tied to the customer's authenticated identity, so the utility has no reason to expose the flow before login. What we can state with confidence comes from the regulator and the province rather than from the utility's gated pages.

The Ontario Energy Board states that rate-regulated electricity and natural gas utilities in Ontario were required to provide customers with access to Green Button by November 1, 2023, and that customers can revoke an authorization at any time by contacting their utility. The Government of Ontario describes the data as natural gas and hourly electricity usage data that customers can download in a standardized format or authorize for secure, automatic transfer to a Green Button application. Hydro One is a rate-regulated electricity distributor, so both functions, Download My Data and Connect My Data, apply to it.

The regulation behind that is O. Reg. 633/21, filed in September 2021, and the Green Button Alliance reported that by November 2, 2023, 55 Ontario-based utility platforms had been certified, covering nearly 5.4 million electricity customers and over 3.5 million natural gas customers across the province. For the regulatory detail, see our explainer on O. Reg. 633/21.

Which route to use for which job

A one-off hourly export for a single facility: the Interval Data Portal via myAccount and "My Energy Usage", per Hydro One's own description.
Recurring reports to a small team: the portal's scheduled email reports, which Hydro One says can be sent automatically.
An ongoing, machine-readable feed into your own software or a benchmarking tool: Green Button Connect My Data, authorized by the customer after signing in to myAccount.
A one-time standard file to hand to an analyst: Green Button Download My Data, which the province requires for regulated distributors.
Accounts or history that predate what the portal exposes, or a commodity with no digital feed: PDF bill digitization.

The difference between the last two Green Button options is covered in our Connect My Data versus Download My Data guide. The short version: if the data will be needed again next month, use the authorized feed.

Practical steps

Confirm who the customer of record is for each account. Only that party (or a representative they authorize) can sign in to myAccount or grant Green Button access.
Sign in to myAccount and open "My Energy Usage" to reach the Interval Data Portal. Hydro One states this is now the only route to the portal.
If you manage many accounts, ask Hydro One about the universal login for representatives that its portal page describes, rather than juggling separate credentials.
For an ongoing feed, complete the Green Button Connect My Data authorization from myAccount. Record the date and scope of the authorization.
Decide now where the data needs to land (Portfolio Manager, RETScreen, Power BI, a CRM) so the feed is set up once in the right shape.

Doing this for a handful of accounts is manageable. Doing it for a few hundred, across Hydro One and a dozen other distributors, is a project in itself, which is why we wrote a separate guide on onboarding utility accounts at scale.

What the data looks like and what to check

Portal downloads are report files; Green Button files are XML built on the Energy Services Provider Interface standard, which the Green Button Alliance notes was released by the North American Energy Standards Board in 2011, with interval granularity that the same source says may be 5-minute, hourly, daily, or monthly depending on the provider. Either way, expect to check for the usual problems before trusting the numbers: intervals missing after a communication outage, estimated reads that get replaced later, and billing periods that do not align with calendar months.

Standardizing Hydro One data with EZGB

EZGB (Easy Green Button Connector) collects consumption and billing data from utilities through authorized utility connections, Green Button (Download My Data and Connect My Data), and PDF bill digitization. It validates the data, standardizes units and fields so a Hydro One account looks like every other account in your portfolio, and delivers it by API, CSV, or SFTP into ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, RETScreen, Power BI, CRMs, or your own database. EZGB is part of MartinAI, built by Screaming Power.

Where Hydro One data is concerned, the customer still authorizes access through the utility's own myAccount, and older or paper-only history comes in through bill digitization. If you want to see how a mixed portfolio of Hydro One and other Ontario accounts looks once it is standardized, book a walkthrough at ezgb.ca. Our overview of getting utility data from Ontario utilities is the right starting point if Hydro One is only one of the distributors you deal with.

Frequently asked questions

Does Hydro One offer Green Button?

Yes. Hydro One publishes a Green Button Connect My Data landing page that directs customers to sign in to myAccount, and as a rate-regulated Ontario electricity distributor it is covered by the requirement, described by the Ontario Energy Board, to provide Green Button access by November 1, 2023.

Where is Hydro One's hourly usage data?

In the Interval Data Portal. Hydro One states that access is available only through myAccount and the "My Energy Usage" function, and that the portal lets users view hourly usage, download a breakdown by meter, facility and account, and schedule reports by email.

Can a consultant access several Hydro One accounts at once?

Hydro One's portal page says that for representatives managing multiple accounts it offers a universal login for all applicable accounts and service points. The specifics are handled with the utility; the portal page lists CICR@HydroOne.com as the contact.

What does the province guarantee if I cannot find a feature?

Under O. Reg. 633/21, as described by the OEB and the Government of Ontario, regulated electricity utilities must let customers download their hourly usage data in a standardized format and authorize its automatic transfer to a Green Button application. If a feature is unclear in myAccount, contact the utility and cite that requirement.

Does EZGB have a special arrangement with Hydro One?

No. EZGB uses the customer-authorized channels Hydro One provides, together with PDF bill digitization for anything those channels do not cover, then standardizes and delivers the data. It does not claim registration, approval, or endorsement from Hydro One or any other utility.

Sources

Source: hydroone.com