A new marketplace is in store for building efficiency apps

To check out what's next for energy management apps, stop byHackCity, November 9-11.

When the Green Button program was launched as a way for能源用户共享数据, the initiative was hailed as an opportunityfor third-party developersto build new commercial and residential energy management applications.

While many utilities and service providers have jumped aboard the Green Button program, there has been little progress in building a larger platform for aggregating commercial or residential energy management apps. Some have speculated thatprivacy and data security concernsand a lack of visibility has held back the development of a Green Button app marketplace.

江森自控，久负盛名的楼宇控制系统和硬件，希望改变，通过推出自己的市场和强大的进军软件和服务领域。最近，该公司提供的应用程序编程接口（API）为其Panoptix能源管理平台，让开发者获得了软件工具包，并鼓励将可供在JCI市场销售的自定义应用程序的创建。

Panoptix is a suite ofcloud-hosted applicationsintent on improving the collection and management of building performance data. Johnson Controls is sharing this building intelligence data for development of building efficiency applications. A number of third-party participants have signed on including EnergyAi, Lucid Design Group, EnergyPoints, T4G and FirstFuel.

First Fuel, a Boston-based energy software firm, pulls meter data from the Panaoptix platform to develop a better understanding of how a building consumes energy. The analytics tools provide "comprehensive energy analysis" remotely without the cost of onsite hardware or in-house energy audits.

"We're very pleased to be part of an ecosystem that allows applications like ours to connect with large numbers of building owners," says Swapnil Shah, CEO of First Fuel.

While the market for building control systems has been highly competitive for years as vendors offer proprietary solutions, the shift toward IT-enabled solutions is creating new opportunities, says Casey Talon, research analyst with IDC Energy Insights. "By opening their APIs and providing a marketplace for app developers to showcase and sell their tools, Johnson Controls is establishing the company as a innovator in the market."

Indeed, Johnson Controls will be offering up the Panoptix API set at a hackathon for the first time at this week'sHackCityevent, November 9-11. Developers are encouraged to sink their teeth intosoftware challengeson residential energy management from the city of San Francisco, how to tap the smart grid for electric vehicles from connected vehicle specialist OnStar, as well as specific challenges from Johnson Controls.

"We see [HackCity] as a great place to create value on the Panoptix platform," says Laura Farnham, vice president of building technology and services at Johnson Controls. "We hope to see a couple of market-ready apps that can enhance the building efficiency marketplace."

Here are the specific challenges from Johnson Controls for HackCity:

Sharing Energy Usage:创建一个应用程序sing Panoptix APIs that can visualize meter use and C02 emissions across one or more buildings, and share this data via social media sites (e.g. Facebook, Foursquare, etc.). If available, compare a buildings’ energy usage to data that’s available from other resources (utilities, government agencies, etc.) for ranking or benchmarking purposes. The comparisons could be shared across social media sites, as well.

Usage Alert: Create an application that monitors specific conditions that are available from Panoptix APIs, and facilitates notification via one or more of the following methods: Email, SMS, Twitter. Specific conditions to be monitored can be determined by the team (e.g. consumption limits, peak demand, etc.).

"This is a great place to meet like-minded developers and industry leaders. We're building a marketplace towards scalability and commercialization and also hope to have a great time" said Farnham.

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