How to Download Green Button Data for a Solar Quote (SCE and LADWP)
Green Button is a file of your home's electricity use for every hour, downloaded from your utility account. Your bills say how much you used each month; the Green Button file says when. For an SCE home going solar under today's Net Billing rules, when decides a large part of the bill, so a year of real hours lets an installer replace an estimate with your actual pattern. For an LADWP home, solar is netted against usage over each two-month period, so the hour matters little and your bills are usually enough. Download the last 12 months as XML or CSV, don't open and re-save it in Excel, and send it only to installers you're seriously considering. Installers who use Cali-Graf — the free design and proposal app built by Cali Energy, a Los Angeles solar and roofing contractor — can load the file straight into the estimate.
Is it worth it for your home?
| Your situation | Is Green Button worth downloading? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| SCE customer, no solar yet | Yes | Under the Net Billing Tariff, solar you send to the grid at noon earns far less than power you buy back at 7 PM, so your hours change the savings |
| SCE customer thinking about a battery | Yes | A battery's value under Net Billing depends on what you use in the 4–9 PM peak |
| LADWP customer, no solar yet | Optional | LADWP nets solar 1:1 over each two-month billing period, so the hour matters little; bills are enough |
| Moved in less than a year ago | Not yet | The file must cover a full year; give the installer your bills, or a yearly total |
| Your home already has solar | No | The meter shows only what came from the grid, not what the home used |
Many LADWP homes have only recently received advanced meters — LADWP began installing them in fall 2025 — so an LADWP account may not have a year of hourly history yet; see planning an all-electric home's electrical load.
What it changes in a solar estimate
Without hourly data, an installer has to guess your daily pattern from monthly totals. In Cali-Graf, the design and proposal software built by Cali Energy, that guess is made from 30 similar Los Angeles homes in ResStock — a national model of U.S. homes from the NLR (formerly NREL) laboratory — each fitted to your bills, and for SCE homes the estimate comes with a spread of likely outcomes — for example likely $1,180–$1,420 a year — because the same bills fit households that use power at different hours. With your Green Button file, the calculation uses your own hours and gives one result built on your real pattern. It is still an estimate: how your use changes, the weather and future rates will move the real bill.
If you're on an SCE time-of-use plan, the kWh split printed on your bills — on-peak, mid-peak, off-peak, super off-peak — narrows the spread too, and it's a good fallback when the file isn't available. How SCE's solar billing works is explained in how SCE solar billing works.
How to download it
SCE. Sign in at sce.com. SCE's Green Button Download gives your hourly and daily usage; in My Account it sits under Data Sharing & Download.
LADWP. Sign in at ladwp.com and open My Account → Green Button.
Then, for either utility:
- Choose the last 12 months. A shorter file can't be used for a yearly estimate.
- Choose XML or CSV. Either works.
- Don't open and save it in Excel. Spreadsheets quietly rewrite dates and numbers, and an edited file is rejected. Send the file exactly as it downloaded.
What to send — and to whom
The file shows when your household uses power, hour by hour — a fairly detailed picture of when you're home. Send it only to the installers you're seriously considering, and it's fair to ask what they keep. In Cali-Graf, the file itself isn't stored: the software reads the usage numbers out of it and saves only those, inside the installer's own account, where Cali Energy doesn't see or contact the installer's customers.
Along with the file, have these ready — they matter just as much:
- Your last 12 months of bills — six two-month bills for LADWP, twelve monthly bills for SCE;
- For SCE, the rate plan printed on your bill (for example TOU-D-4-9PM) and whether you have a CARE discount line;
- Anything that will raise your usage soon — an electric car, a heat pump, an ADU — since an estimate built only on last year's bills won't include it.
Ready with the file and a year of bills? Ask Cali Energy for an estimate built on your own usage.
Why a file gets rejected
An installer using Cali-Graf sees a summary as soon as the file loads — how many days, how often the meter read, the dates, the kWh for the last 12 months and any missing hours — and a plain message when it can't be used:
| The message says | What happened | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The file covers … days — 12 months are needed | It's shorter than a year | Download again with the last 12 months selected; if you moved in less than a year ago, use bills |
| The file is missing … hours of readings | The meter skipped more than five days | A new download won't fill the gap — use bills or a yearly total |
| Could not read this Green Button file: … | The file was damaged, edited or isn't usage data | Download it again and send it unopened |
| This meter already exports solar power | The home already has solar | Use bills or a yearly total of the home's full usage |
Frequently asked
What is Green Button data?
How do I download Green Button data from SCE?
How do I download Green Button data from LADWP?
Do I need Green Button data to get a solar quote?
Can I open the file in Excel to check it?
My home already has solar. Should I send Green Button data?
Related reading
Sources & methodology
Product facts on this page come from Cali-Graf's own help center and the pages linked below; figures in examples come from the stated inputs. Features, limits and supported utilities change; each was verified October 16, 2026.
- Cali-Graf Help — Upload a Green Button file
- Cali-Graf Help — Green Button file not accepted
- Cali-Graf Help — Why the first-year forecast is a range
- Cali-Graf Help — How the hourly usage profile is built
- Cali-Graf Help — Enter time-of-use kWh from SCE bills
- Cali-Graf — Privacy Policy
- SCE — Energy Management Center (Green Button Download)
- U.S. Department of Energy — Green Button
- Green Button Alliance
Have your file and bills? Get an estimate built on them
Cali Energy (CSLB #1032379), a Los Angeles solar installer, designs on your own roof and models your SCE or LADWP bill from your usage. Before you sign with any installer, check their license, insurance and permit history. If a menu step here no longer matches your utility account, look for "Green Button" or "Download my data".
Prepared by Cali Energy, October 16, 2026. This article is for general educational purposes only and is not legal, tax, financial, engineering, or utility advice. Rates, incentives, codes, permit requirements, equipment specifications, prices, and program terms may change; figures and timelines are estimates, not guarantees. Confirm current requirements with the applicable utility, AHJ, program administrator, manufacturer, or a licensed professional. See our Content Disclaimer. Cali Energy · 19201 Parthenia St, Unit E, Northridge, CA 91324 · CSLB #1032379 (B, C-10, C-39)