Welcome to the Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) Outreach Collaborative

An Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) outreach collaborative is in the early stages of being formed. The goal of the Collaborative is to foster effective deployment of Dynamic Pricing, Demand Response and Grid Reliability by facilitating and accelerating the adoption of OpenADR.


Automated Demand Response

  • Automation of Demand Response (DR) programs has proven to be an effective means of obtaining more reliable and consistently higher performing electric load shifts and sheds than using manual techniques.
  • OpenADR is an important component of the Smart Grid initiative that delivers dynamic price and reliability signals in a standardized communications data model between the Utilities and Independent System Operators (ISO's) and the energy management systems within the facilities.
  • On May 18 U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu included AutoADR among the Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Framework that will help expedite development of a nationwide smart electric power grid: http://www.energy.gov/news2009/7408.htm
  • OpenADR was developed at the Demand Response Research Center managed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with funding from the California Energy Commission (CEC) Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program, in collaboration with California Investor Owned Utilities. OpenADR is currently in use by four electric utilities to automate their DR programs and has been adopted by a wide range of building and industrial controls companies.

Collaborative Initiative

While a good foundation of technical work has been completed in developing, testing, and deploying OpenADR there is much more that needs to be done to facilitate its wide spread adoption. A deployment strategy needs to address both the utilities or ISO's that publish OpenADR signals and the facilities that consume them to manage electric loads. Towards that end, we are forming a Collaborative to help various stakeholders participate in automated Dynamic Pricing, Demand Response and Grid Reliability.


Who Should Participate?

The OpenADR Collaborative is open to all interested parties. Any industry, academic, and government entity whose mission is to create information, education, and outreach mechanisms to facilitate and accelerate the use of OpenADR for Dynamic Pricing, Demand response and Grid Reliability should participate in the Collaborative:

  • Utilities and Independent System Operators that develop and offer Dynamic Pricing, DR tariffs and programs.
  • Control vendors that build energy management, controls, and automation systems for facilities.
  • System integrators that install and program automation systems.
  • Technical coordinators that manage the deployment of OpenADR to facilities on behalf of Utilities/ISO's.
  • Facility owners and energy managers who manage facilities.
  • Auditors and energy engineers that may insure compliance with various DR programs and tariffs.
  • Aggregators or curtailment service providers.
  • Utility IT companies that offer software and services.
  • Government regulators and policy analysts that evaluate open standards and technology.
  • Researchers who develop and evaluate new Smart Grid technologies and demand response strategies

Collaborative Activities

Activities being considered include the following:

  • Centralized development and documentation of information concerning Dynamic Rates, utility incentives, Demand Response tariffs and programs.
  • Centralized development and documentation of information concerning OpenADR deployments, including lessons learned from previous deployments and the development of best practices.
  • Education and training sessions to enable control vendors to incorporate the ability to consume OpenADR signals into their equipment.
  • Education and training of system integrators and technical coordinators to enable them to install OpenADR enabled equipment into facilities.
  • Education and training sessions targeted towards developing load management strategies for the facilities by using best practices gleamed from research and prior deployments.
  • Co-development of marketing strategies between Utilities/ISO's and vendors for specific DR programs.
  • Development of an OpenADR marketing portal targeted toward customers that may be interested in participating in an automated DR program. This portal could be used by members to advertise their offerings and direct interested parties to their own web sites for further information.
  • Development programs to allow vendors to develop, test, and demonstrate their ability to integrate with OpenADR signals.
  • Compliance testing of OpenADR clients and servers.

Reference Reading on OpenADR

Connectivity Week Workshop

We would like to invite you to a workshop to be held at the Connectivity Week Conference, on June 8th, 2009 between 3:30 - 5:30 pm.

The workshop will be in 2 parts. In the first half a panel of current users of the OpenADR will share their success stories and answer questions. In the second half we will present ideas about the OpenADR collaborative, and discuss these concepts with the workshop participants in breakout sessions.

We are at the early stages of forming an Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) outreach collaborative. Our goal is to foster effective deployment of Dynamic Pricing, Demand Response and Grid Reliability by facilitating and accelerating the adoption of OpenADR.

The collaborative is open to all interested parties and will include stakeholders such as utilities, control companies, building and facility owners, industry, academic and government organizations.

Please register in advance of the workshop to help with the organization of the logistics of the feedback sessions. Please email Olcay Ungun if you wish to participate. For general information on the Connectivity Week Conference, please refer to the following link: www.connectivityweek.com/2009/

For the OpenADR Collaborative Workshop please follow this link and scroll to the bottom of the page: www.connectivityweek.com/2009/#track_260