Halt! Who Digitally Goes There? How Extensible Energy Protects Your Account with Auth0
By Cameron Barclift
When you first sign up for DemandEx, Extensible Energy’s “solar plus” peak shaving software, you may notice the “Auth0” logo above your username and password. Who is Auth0? They’re Extensible Energy’s secure identification and authorization partner. It’s our way of making sure that only authorized solar installers, building owners, and facility managers can access their DemandEx account and view how DemandEx is controlling flexible loads.
To take a step back, Extensible Energy understands that privacy and security are critical for solar building owners, installers, and asset managers. Nobody wants to risk outside companies or individuals viewing private building control data or another solar company’s DemandEx portfolio. That’s why we’ve partnered with Auth0, one of the most respected third-party digital I.D. and authentication companies. Schneider Electric, Mozilla, Dow Jones, Bluetooth, and many other name brands trust Auth0 to establish account authorizations quickly and to protect accounts from unauthorized users and hackers.
Without Auth0, we (and other much larger companies) would have to create our own security, encryption, login platforms, and identity software from scratch. Instead, our software engineers (like me) focus on solar demand charge reduction solutions and rely on Auth0’s security experts to safeguard your DemandEx data, account, and authorized user identities.
Aside from authorization security, Auth0 enables the entire DemandEx signup, login, and password reset process to be fast and simple. You can choose to create a password, or even sign up through your Google account or another social platform that you’re logged into. There are also options for multi-factor authorizations, such as getting a text with authorization code that expires after a few minutes.
After you establish your account, authorized users can contact an Extensible Energy account manager for additional Auth0 logins for trusted colleagues and clients related to your solar projects.
Auth0 authentication is very common, so you’ve most likely used it before. We just wanted to make sure that new clients and commercial solar partners weren’t confused by the Auth0 logo when first signing up with Extensible Energy. Rest assured, they’re with us.
If you have any other security questions or concerns about creating your Extensible Energy account or becoming an Extensible Plus partner, please contact us or your Extensible Energy account manager.
Cameron Barclift is a software developer and systems architect at Extensible Energy.