London Hydro was one of the earlier Ontario distributors to put Green Button in front of customers, and it offers both of the standard access modes. If you need your own consumption history, or you are a service provider who needs a customer's data with their permission, this guide explains what is available, which mode to ask for, and what the data looks like when it arrives.
The same two modes exist at most Ontario utilities now, so the decision you make here carries over. If you are working across several distributors, the broader guide on how to get utility data from Ontario utilities covers the pattern, and the supported utilities page lists the ones EZGB already collects from.
What London Hydro offers
London Hydro publishes a Green Button platform page and a dedicated page for the two access modes, Green Button DMD and CMD. The utility describes Download My Data as the method that enables homeowners and property managers to download their electricity usage data from the distributor's website in the standard Green Button format, and Connect My Data as the method that lets customers authorize direct, secure transfer of their usage data to third party service providers.
Customer access runs through London Hydro's My Account portal, which the utility describes as a full service platform for billing and utility needs that uses Green Button data to show consumption at a granular level. Menu labels and screen layouts change from time to time, so treat the utility's own pages as the authority on where the buttons are today rather than any third party walkthrough, including this one.
Download My Data or Connect My Data
| Download My Data | Connect My Data | |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | A file you download yourself | An authorized, ongoing feed to a third party |
| Who does the work | The account holder, every time | Set up once, then it runs |
| Freshness | A snapshot as of the export | Keeps updating as new data posts |
| Good for | A one-off audit, a baseline, a single building | Ongoing reporting, dashboards, many accounts |
| Effort at 40 accounts | 40 logins and 40 exports, repeated | Authorization per account, once |
The rule of thumb: if you will need the same data again next month, Download My Data is the wrong mode. The full comparison, including what the authorization step involves, is in Connect My Data and Download My Data.
What is inside the file
Green Button data is not a utility-specific spreadsheet. It is an XML document built on the North American Energy Standards Board Energy Services Provider Interface standard, wrapped in the Atom syndication format. That is why a file from London Hydro has the same structure as a file from another participating distributor: the meter readings sit in interval blocks with a start time, a duration and a value, alongside usage point and reading type information that tells you the units and the resolution.
Two details catch people out on first contact. Timestamps are epoch seconds in UTC, so a naive import will shift every reading for an Ontario building, and the value scale is carried separately from the number itself, so readings can be off by a factor of ten or a thousand if the multiplier is ignored. Both are explained in the Green Button data format.
Doing this for more than a few accounts
One building is a manageable manual task. A school board, a housing provider, a property manager or a software vendor with customers across the province is not. The work does not scale linearly either, because every account has its own login, its own authorization state, and its own gaps when a portal is down or an account changes hands.
This is the case EZGB is built for: authorized collection across many utilities and many accounts, standardized into one delivery, so your team receives the same shape of data no matter which distributor it came from. See the supported utilities list and the pricing page for the options, or the utility data API guide if you are integrating it into a product rather than a reporting process.
Why most Ontario distributors offer this
Green Button in Ontario is not only a voluntary utility initiative. The province made it a requirement for prescribed distributors through Ontario Regulation 633/21, which is why coverage across the province is now broad enough to plan a data pipeline around. The scope, the dates and what it means for a data consumer are covered in the O. Reg. 633/21 guide.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a My Account login to use Green Button at London Hydro?
Customer self-service at London Hydro runs through My Account, and the utility describes it as the platform where customers reach their data. Check the utility's Green Button pages for the current access path for your account type.
Can I authorize a third party and revoke it later?
Yes. Authorization under Connect My Data is granted by the customer and can be withdrawn by the customer. That control is part of the standard, not a utility-specific feature.
How far back does the data go?
History depends on the account and on what the utility retains, so confirm the available range for your own accounts rather than assuming a fixed number of years.
Is gas data available the same way?
London Hydro is an electricity distributor. Natural gas comes from the gas utility for the address, and the approach for combining the two is covered in natural gas, water and propane data alongside electricity.
Can EZGB collect London Hydro data for me?
Check the supported utilities page for current coverage and ask us about any distributor that is not listed there yet.
Sources
- London Hydro, Green Button platform: https://www.londonhydro.com/greenbutton
- London Hydro, Green Button DMD and CMD: https://www.londonhydro.com/greenbutton-DMD-CMD
- London Hydro, My Account: https://www.londonhydro.com/my-account
- Ontario Regulation 633/21, Green Button: https://www.canlii.org/en/on/laws/regu/o-reg-633-21/latest/o-reg-633-21.html
Source: londonhydro.com