1. The Energy Data Initiative
Ian Kalin, Presidential Innovation Fellow
March, 2013
2. Energy Data Initiative (EDI)
“I want us to ask ourselves every day, how are we using
technology to make a real difference in people’s lives.”
President Barack Obama
Data is
Generated
New R&D and Data is
Entrepreneurs Energy Opened
Data
Ecosystem
Accelerates Innovators
Clean Energy Leverage Data
Energy Data Initiative 2
4. What is Open Data?
My Data, made
Sensitive data,
Freely available available to me,
cleansed and
machine- using common
made available
readable data industry
to wider pool
formats
Energy Data Initiative 4
5. Examples of Open Data
1. Statistical data
2. Location-based and geo-tagged data
3. Research data
4. Procurement / contracting data
5. Performance & outcomes data
6. Regulatory data
7. Taxonomies and classifications
8. Multimedia content
And many others…
Energy Data Initiative 5
6. Rigorous Protection of Privacy
Privacy and A B
Confidentiality will
remain protected A B
• Everyone has a responsibility to protect privacy & confidentiality
• Equally important to protect against data that COULD be made
available in the future (a.k.a. “The Mosaic Effect”)
Energy Data Initiative 6
7. Open Data Fuels Innovation
New companies,
New products
new lines of business
Information-enriched More transparent &
Services efficient markets
Improved features on
Brand new markets
existing platforms
Energy Data Initiative 7
9. The Playbook
1. Release new data sets, turn existing websites and
PDFs into machine-readable data sets, launch APIs
2. Launch/join/expand community on data.gov
3. Hold workshops (“Data Jams”) to brainstorm with
entrepreneurs and data owners
4. Regularly support Incubators, Accelerators,
incentive-prize competitions and other gatherings
5. Hold celebration events (“Datapaloozas”) to highlight
private sector innovation using open data
Energy Data Initiative 9
10. Conclusion
• Thank you for your support of the Energy Data Initiative
• For more information contact:
– Ian Kalin, Ian.Kalin@ee.doe.gov, 202-277-4042
• You can also find references, links, apps and case studies at:
www.OpenEI.org Energy.Data.Gov
Energy Data Initiative 10
Editor's Notes
The Energy Data Initiative is designed to “liberate” data to fuel innovation and entrepreneurship.For the People, by the PeopleBy opening data, the US Government enables entrepreneurs and innovators to build services faster and better than the government could.The government can, and should, serve as a platform for private sector innovation Entrepreneurs can turn this data into new products and jobsWe can’t do it alone – we need external software developers to help turn our data into useful products and servicesThe private sector can use government data to build more services than the government could provide by itself – and at a much lower cost We must enlist entrepreneurs and the public to join us as partners in providing better services to the American people at lower costs.
The Value of Government DataGovernment data is a powerful tool that impacts our daily lives – you just may not know it.It gives rise to new industries and reshapes existing ones. Starting decades ago, we released weather data – it now fuels a multi-billion dollar industry. NOAA collects a ton of weather data and makes it freely available. Not only does your local news weathercaster use it, but that data also powers online weather apps and services, like weather.com. It’s also an important input to financial products, like crop insurance. We liberated access to GPS starting in the early 1980’s – and civilian and commercial access to GPS now contributes $90 billion annually to the US economy. From precision crop farming to supertanker navigation to car navigation system to Foursquare and Google Maps – all of this possible because the government made the GPS system open to any innovators or entrepreneur.The reserves of government data continue to grow – health, transportation, energy, finance, and much more.Entrepreneurs can turn this data into new products and jobsThe government can, and should, serve as a platform for private sector innovationOpen Data is important because it can help advance:A more efficient and effective governmentTangible improvements in the lives of AmericansJob creationEconomic growth
Open Data is freely available machine-readable data, that anyone can use. It’s machine-readable, which generally means an excel file, a CSV file, or other formats that software developers can readily use (e.g. JSON, XML, etc.). And in the best case scenario, open data is made available to third parties via an Application Programing Interface (API) – an interface designed for other software programs.PDFs and word documents aren’t really considered Open Data. The data that is in them isn’t structured and doesn’t have relevant metadata. It’s harder for software developers to easily use these types of files. In the same way, websites and web calculators aren’t really Open Data either – they aren’t easy for other software developers to use.Open Data also includes making sensitive data available to a wider pool of qualified audiences.Open Data also includes voluntarily contributed personal data, made available back to consumers safely and securely, using a common industry format. This “personal smart disclosure” data, or “My Data”, like that of the Blue Button or Green Button, is private data. Government or non-government entities making personal smart disclosure data available back to consumers/customersneed to do it safely and securely. Whether it’s freely available data, sensitive data made more available to qualified audiences, or personal smart disclosure data --Open Data can come from the federal, state, or local government as well as from the private sector.Open Data is the new default for the US Government, under the recently released Digital Government Strategy.
The word “data” can include a wide variety of types of data and information sources. In can include:Statistical data – e.g. Energy Information Administration. (EIA) http://www.eia.gov/Location-based and geo-tagged data – e.g. Alternative Fuels Station Locator. http://www.afdc.energy.gov/locator/stations/Research data – e.g. Database at the Office of Science and Technical Information. (OSTI) http://www.osti.gov/home/Procurement/contracting data -- e.g. Better Buildings Program and American Reinvestment & Recovery Act funds. (BB & ARRA). http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/betterbuildings/Performance & Outcomes data -- e.g. Miles per Gallon from FuelEconomy.govRegulatory data -- e.g. Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency. (DSIRE) http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/buildingsperformance/Taxonomies and classifications -- e.g. Buildings Performance Database. (BPD) http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/buildingsperformance/Multimedia content --e.g. National Training & Education Resource. (NTER) https://www.nterlearning.org/
The following quote comes from the President, as written in a letter on February 23, 2012:“Never has privacy been more important than today, in the age of the Internet, the World Wide Web and smart phones. In just the last decade, the Internet has enabled a renewal of direct political engagement by citizens around the globe and an explosion of commerce and innovation creating jobs of the future. Much of this innovation is enabled by novel uses of personal information. So, it is incumbent on us to do what we have done throughout history: apply our timeless privacy values to the new technologies and circumstances of our times.”Regarding the liberation of new datasets, it is important to remain vigilant against the “mosaic effect,” which generally refers to the resultant disclosure of personally identifying information (PII) as a product of two different datasets being mashed together.The Administration has a number of privacy and confidentiality controls in place.
Examples:New productsA New York start-up company called Honest Buildings created a website called BuildingConfidence.co to collect diverse datasets on building performance as a means to provide certainty to investors on the financial worth of a building retrofit.Information-enriched services Policies and incentives for new renewable energy and energy efficiency improvements can be complicated. To translate them into something more interesting for the average person, Simple Energy uses this data to fuel games that lead to real changes in energy consumption.Improved features With the industry adoption of the Green Button, start-up companies like First Fuel & PlottWatt can have a higher level of accuracy on their energy efficiency solutions for commercial buildings.New companies Apps for Energy 2nd Place prize winner named Melon Power has a energy efficiency app that could not have been created if not for Green Button and the EPA’s Portfolio Manager and Energy Star programs.More efficient market Residential solar providers Sunrun and SolarCity are able to simplify the diverse and complicated process of utility power plant construction by accelerating Distributed Generation. These solar developers rely on a number of datasets, such as weather data, to create their asset models.Brand new markets The open disclosure of data from vehicles, such as through the onboard diagnostics port (OBD-II) is creating a new market of apps and products for drivers. Different than propriety systems like OnStar or Microsoft Sync, Ford Motor Company’s OpenXC platform is an open source hardware and software system that seeks to host a wave of new products.
Open Data Initiatives have already been launched in 7 areas:health, energy, education, development, social impact, finance and public safety.The Health Data Initiative was launched in 2010, and the energy, education and public safety ones were launched in 2012.
Support energy-relevant presidential priorities:A. Solar as cheap as fossil fuelsB. Double fuel efficiency by 2024C. Reduce oil imports by 1/3 by 2025D. Make non-residential buildings 20% more efficiency by 2020There is a common “playbook” for the U.S Government across each of the Open Data Initiatives:Release new data sets, turn existing websites and PDFs into machine-readable data sets, launch APIsLaunch/join/expand community on data.gov Hold workshops (“data jams”) to brainstorm with entrepreneursRegularly participate in code-a-thons, meet-ups, developer conferences, and other gatherings Hold celebration events (“datapaloozas”) to highlight private sector innovation using open data
For more information contact:Ian Kalin, Ian.Kalin@ee.doe.gov, 202-277-4042
