OpenADR as a National Standard for Automated Demand Response

OpenADR as a National Standard

In 2009, OpenADR was included in the Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Framework, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) identified OpenADR as a key utility industry standard. In that same year, the OpenADR specification was released as an official California Energy Commission (CEC) document, and the Demand Response Research Center donated version 1.0 to the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) and the Utilities Communication Architecture (UCA) International Users Group. Those two groups are working to create OpenADR version 2.0, which will be submitted to the International Electrotechnical Commission in Europe for adoption worldwide.

In October 2011, the OpenADR Alliance and Kansas City Power and Light held a plug-fest to demonstrate compliance of devices and other simple energy management systems with OpenADR 2.0. Early adopters from 10 companies tested six clients, two virtual servers, and an alpha version of the certification test suite. This plug-fest is considered a significant milestone in the development of OpenADR conformance.

More information about OpenADR can be obtained from technical papers, case studies, and presentations located on the DRRC web site.

— Sila Kiliccote, Mary Ann Piette and Roger Levy