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A critical component of the national Smart Grid initiative, Auto-DR encourages businesses and homeowners to reduce their electricity consumption at critical "peak demand" times, or in response to changes in market price, by automating message delivery from the utility directly to the customer. OpenADR standardizes a message format used for Auto-DR so that dynamic price and reliability signals can be delivered in a uniform and interoperable data model among utilities, Independent System Operator (ISOs) and customer's energy management and control systems.
Like all Smart Grid standards, OpenADR adoption will help accelerate implementation of Smart Grid technologies by enabling key benefits for utilities, vendors, consumers and other stakeholder groups by:
- Lowering costs:
Standardization will help lower production, service and maintenance
costs for vendors, and ultimately, their utility customers. Lower
costs will also accelerate technology innovation and enhance product
choice.
- Assuring
compliance:
Vendor technologies that conform to a uniform standard will reduce
utility costs associated with compliance testing, integration and
deployment, while creating more technology options for power companies
exploring Auto-DR.
- Improving
reliability:
Auto-DR has proven effective in achieving a more reliable and higher
performing grid by helping shave peak electricity demand.
Standardizing a message format will further improve interoperability,
efficiency and reliability of Auto-DR systems.
The
OpenADR Alliance will foster the collaboration necessary among industry
stakeholders to ensure the rapid deployment of OpenADR -- a price-and
reliability-based demand response communication specification. National
standards work will be built upon the OpenADR specifications published by
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and funded by the
California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER)
program. OpenADR is being further developed through the National Institute of
Standards and Technology's (NIST) Smart Grid-standards effort, along with
organizations including: Organization for the Advancement of Structured
Information Standards (OASIS), the Utilities Communications Architecture
International User's Group (UCAIug), and the North American Energy Standards
Board (NAESB). "Grounded in the standards activities initiated by Berkeley Lab in 2002, the OpenADR Alliance will play a central role in accelerating the adoption of Auto-DR and rapidly advancing our power grid into the 21st century," said Mary Ann Piette, research director for PIER Demand Response Research Center (DRRC) at Berkeley Lab. "Only through interoperable technology standards can we implement Smart Grid solutions with the reliability, cost-effectiveness and guaranteed compliance necessary for broad market acceptance. The OpenADR Alliance will implement processes to quickly bring this commercially proven standard to market."
"There's no question the widespread adoption of an OpenADR standard will lower the development, equipment and service costs for Smart Grid vendors and the utilities investing in these solutions," said Jeremy Eaton, vice president of energy solutions at Honeywell. "And it will ultimately benefit homeowners and businesses because open standards spur competition and innovation, and will lead to more effective Smart Grid technologies, and greater energy and cost savings."
"OpenADR is an established standard with the potential to accelerate Auto-DR and Smart Grid implementation across the country," said Commissioner Jeffrey Byron, California Energy Commission (Energy Commission). "The Energy Commission funds research to provide consumers tools and products to manage their energy use. OpenADR is the culmination of that research. Since OpenADR is now a part of the national Smart Grid standards framework, the Energy Commission, LBNL and stakeholders have an important role to play in helping lead the industry toward national implementation."
"Improved availability of OpenADR-compliant products will also help electric utilities, like Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), satisfy the grid-reliability and load-reduction requirements set by public utility commissions," said Albert Chiu, senior program manager, demand response, for PG&E. "A standardized framework for Auto-DR products facilitated by the OpenADR Alliance will pave the way for market adoption of Smart Grid solutions that improve customer satisfaction and grid reliability."
