California utilities to allow energy data downloads by end of 2011

Back in August, when I met with White House CTO Aneesh Chopra, he discussed his vision for liberating energy data. The next month he met with three major California utilities to advance that vision via the Green Button Initiative: a challenge to the smart grid ecosystem to provide customers with electronic access to their energy usage information.

Yesterday, during a technical workshop at the California Public Utilities Commission Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric announced that they would not only implement this concept — they plan to have it up and running by the end of 2011.

That’s less than three weeks from today — and just four months after accepting Chopra’s challenge. What does it mean?…

Full post: California utilities make huge progress on White House Green Button initiative