Essex Powerlines

Description: Essex Powerlines is a local distribution company (LDC) in Ontario, Canada.

Website: https://greenbutton.essexpowerlines.ca/

Utility ID: ESSEX (this is the utility identifier you use in our API)

In order for you to request data from Essex Powerlines customers, you must register with Essex Powerlines as a third party company.

As part of their Green Button Connect My Data (GBCMD) program, Essex Powerlines is using UtilityAPI's EE/DER Engagement Platform to allow third-party companies to request data access from Essex Powerlines customers. Authorizations use the Green Button OAuth process, which means that third-parties have to be pre-registered with Essex Powerlines so they can be assigned a client_id.

NOTE: When you register, you will be automatically put into "sandbox" mode. This means you can only request data from test accounts, not real Essex Powerlines customers. After you register, Essex Powerlines will review your registration and switch you to "live" mode (you will get an email when this happens).

After registering with Essex Powerlines as a third party, to request authorizations from Essex Powerlines customers and test accounts, you can use any of these methods:

Once a customer has authorized, you will see an Authorization appear on your dashboard and via both our JSON API and Green Button API.

When your first register as a third party, your registration status is set to Sandbox mode. This means you can only request data from test accounts, so you can try it out or start building an integration, but real customers won't be able to authorize data sharing with you yet. Essex Powerlines will review your registration, then you'll get an email letting you know that you can now switch your status to Live mode in your settings.

During the OAuth authorization flow, we by default allow Essex Powerlines customers to verify their identity by providing their latest bill information. However, since third parties may not have a real customer account when they start, we also offer a "test scenario" option. Third parties can pre-select which option (lastbill or test) they want their OAuth authorize request to default to by their preferred authentication choice to the scope string. In general, you'll probably only find this useful for automated testing with test accounts, since the default (lastbill) is what you probably want to use for real Essex Powerlines customers.

Scope parameter format:
auth-{type}[-{value}]

Full scope string example with authentication option (percent encoded):
scope=FB%3D4_16_51%3BAdditionalScope%3Dauth-test-test_residential

Type Can Have Value? Description Scope String Example
lastbill Yes

Authenticate using a customer's latest bill date and amount. The prefill value for this authentication type is the customer's account number.

auth-lastbill-111111111-1
test Yes Authenticate using a specific test scenario. auth-test-test_residential

Since the Essex Powerlines OAuth authorization flow uses their authentication system by default, that means you can't use UtilityAPI's default test usernames to manually simulate a test scenario. Instead, below we have created some special test accounts you can simulate to try out the various authentication methods (lastbill or test).

Try one with your Essex Powerlines data share link
(you aren't logged into an account that has a registered Essex Powerlines client)

Account # Last Bill Amount Last Bill Date Equivalent Test Scenario Description
111111111-1 100.0 2023-07-01 residential A residential customer with 1 electric service.
222222222-2 200.0 2023-07-02 commercial A commercial customer with 1 electric service.
333333333-3 300.0 2023-07-03 badlogin Simulate error where we couldn't find that customer.
Test Account Equivalent Test Scenario Description
test_residential residential A residential customer with 1 electric service.
test_commercial commercial A commercial customer with 1 electric service.
test_badlogin badlogin Simulate error where we couldn't find that customer.

To demonstrate how you can integrate the GBC OAuth authorization process into your apps and websites, we offer a demo third party website that can be configured with any GBC client, so long as it has a specific redirect_uri added. We have also created public, sandbox-only GBC clients that you can try out (see table below).

Client ID Company Name Pre-configured Demo Link
ESSEX_ccccccccc Test Company Link