AI agents in utilities

People contact a utility for time-bound reasons: service starts on the day I move in, the power is out, this bill is wrong, I can’t pay this month. Utilities also send signals to devices, such as thermostats and EV chargers enrolled in demand-response programs. Both sides of that picture involve agents: a person’s agent handling a move, and a home or device agent responding to a demand-response event.

Where agents meet today

Energy data

Green Button is the standard format for electricity, natural gas and water usage data. It is based on the North American Energy Standards Board’s Energy Services Provider Interface (ESPI), which has two parts: a common XML format for usage data, and a data exchange protocol that moves data from a utility to a third party the customer authorized. Green Button Download My Data lets a customer download the file. Green Button Connect My Data lets the customer give a one-time authorization so an application can retrieve data automatically.

A customer’s agent that needs usage history, for example to compare rate plans, can use Connect My Data as its authorized channel.

Demand response

OpenADR is an open standard for demand-response signals. The OpenADR Alliance describes OpenADR 3 as complementing the OpenADR 2.0 profiles, with an OpenAPI YAML specification and certification profiles for virtual top nodes (the signalling side) and virtual end nodes (the devices or aggregators that respond).

A demand-response event

Illustrative: the utility or an aggregator sends a demand-response event for a two-hour window this afternoon. A home energy agent enrolled in the program checks the household’s rules, such as never letting the house go above a set temperature, and accepts for the thermostat and the EV charger but declines for the heat-pump water heater. After the event, the utility’s side reports the measured reduction and any credit. OpenADR carries the signal; an agent exchange can carry the preferences, the opt-outs and the settlement questions.

Service requests

Move-ins, move-outs, outage reports and payment arrangements go through utility websites, apps and contact centres, often with identity questions written for people. That is the gap an agent exchange could fill.

A move, step by step

Illustrative:

1. A customer’s agent asks the utility’s agent to start service at a new address on a given date and stop it at the old one.
2. The utility’s agent checks the address, asks for any missing fields, such as meter access or a deposit option, and confirms both dates.
3. On the move-out date, the utility’s agent returns the final read and the date the closing bill will be issued.
4. The customer’s agent keeps both confirmations in case the final bill is disputed.

Top use cases

Use case	Who talks to whom	Notes
Move-in, move-out and outages	Customer agent and utility agent	Start and stop dates, final reads, outage status and restoration estimates
Smart home demand response	Home or device agent and utility or aggregator agent	Event signals, opt-outs and settlement
Parking, EV charging and tolls	Car agent and charging operator agent	Charging sessions and payment
Billing disputes	Customer agent and utility agent	Estimated reads, rate questions, payment plans

Regulatory considerations

Utilities are regulated mostly at the state and provincial level, with federal regulators covering wholesale markets and interstate infrastructure. Checked on 26 September 2026. This is not legal advice.

United States

• Who regulates what. FERC regulates interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas and oil, and wholesale markets. FERC states that it does not regulate retail electricity and natural gas sales to consumers, municipal power systems, most rural electric cooperatives, or local gas distribution pipelines. Retail service is regulated by state commissions, such as the California Public Utilities Commission, which describes its job as safe, reliable utility service at reasonable rates. Rules on starting service, deposits and disconnection are set state by state.
• Aggregated demand response in wholesale markets (Order No. 2222). FERC’s Order No. 2222 requires regional grid operators to let aggregations of distributed energy resources, including demand response, storage and EV charging equipment, participate in wholesale markets, with minimum aggregation sizes set no higher than 100 kW. Retail regulators may keep prohibitions on aggregators bidding retail customers’ demand response into those markets, and small utilities must opt in. State and local authorities remain responsible for interconnecting individual resources. For an agent that enrols a home in a demand-response program, the result is a stack of rules: the wholesale market’s, the state’s and the utility’s.
• Customer data. Green Button’s data exchange protocol is built around customer authorization, which gives a customer’s agent a defined, consent-based route to usage data where the utility offers Connect My Data.

Canada

• Provincial regulators. Retail electricity and gas are provincial. In Ontario, the Ontario Energy Board regulates the electricity and natural gas sectors.
• Green Button is mandatory in Ontario. Ontario Regulation 633/21, Energy Data, made under the Electricity Act, 1998, requires every energy provider to meet its data access requirements on and after 1 November 2023, subject to extensions, and to have its implementation certified by the Green Button Alliance to the Connect My Data and Download My Data standards.
• Winter disconnection ban. The OEB announced that residential customers could not be disconnected by their electricity or natural gas utility for non-payment between 15 November 2025 and 30 April 2026, with previously disconnected customers reconnected by 1 December 2025. Balances and interest still accumulate. An agent handling a payment arrangement needs to know which period applies.

Where to start

1. Start with outage status. It is read-only, urgent for customers, and keyed to an address or account the utility already knows.
2. Use Green Button for data. Where Connect My Data is available, let the customer’s agent get usage through that authorization instead of scraping an online account.
3. Make move dates a structured request. Address, start or stop date, and meter access are fields. Confirm in writing and include the final read.
4. Scope device agents narrowly. A thermostat agent enrolled in demand response should be able to accept or decline events and nothing else on the account. Delegated authority covers scoping.
5. Send hardship to people. Payment difficulty, medical equipment at home and disconnection notices need a person with the full exchange.