OpenADR Helps Building Owners and Operators Meet Title 24 California Compliance Requirements For Connecting Buildings to the Smart Grid

MORGAN HILL, Calif., June 25, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The OpenADR Alliance today announced that the Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) Smart Grid standard enables compliance with the new Title 24 California Energy Code, in effect Jan. 1, 2014. Since OpenADR is being designed into most building management and lighting control systems, California business owners and operators can more easily comply with the changes to Title 24, originally adopted in 1978 to regulate California's energy crisis by requiring any construction of a new building, or alterations made to an existing building, to meet certain standards. The new code includes more stringent regulations for demand response (DR) capabilities within lighting and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) in both residential and non-residential buildings, enabling better management of peak energy demand, costs and overall energy usage.

The revised Title 24 code states that demand responsive controls and equipment shall be capable of receiving and automatically responding to at least one standards-based messaging protocol such as OpenADR. For example, in response to a DR signal, buildings larger than 10,000 square feet will have to automatically reduce their lighting power by at least 15 percent below the building's maximum lighting power.  The signal can come directly from a local utility, independent system operator (ISO), curtailment service provider, or aggregator, indicating a price or a request to modify electricity consumption, for a limited time period. All three major California utilities have announced support for OpenADR 2.0, the only standard that supports the AutoDR needs for residential, commercial and industrial customers.   
 
"Complying with Title 24 will be easy for building owners and operators because the OpenADR standard is already being designed directly into building management and lighting control systems,"said Barry Haaser, managing director, OpenADR Alliance. "Systems with OpenADR-compliant interfaces will be able to participate in AutoDR programs offered by utilities in California to better manage peak energy demand, reducing costs and overall energy usage." 
 
While demand response is not required in HVAC systems under the new code, it is one option for the required standards-based messaging protocol that is required. "If building owners are going to go through the effort of connecting their lighting into an automated DR system, it only makes sense for them to connect their HVAC systems as well," Haaser added.
 
More on OpenADR

OpenADR 2.0a, released in August 2012, supports the simplest devices installed in commercial, industrial and residential environments to enable broad-based and completely automated participation in DR events.  OpenADR 2.0b is designed for more sophisticated devices and will support most DR services and markets, and includes a flexible reporting capability for past, current and future data reports.
 
The OpenADR 2.0b draft profile specification is available for download on the OpenADR Alliance website - http://www.openadr.org/specification.
 
About the OpenADR Alliance

The OpenADR Alliance fosters the development, adoption, and compliance of the Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) standard through collaboration, education, training, testing, and certification. The OpenADR Alliance is open to all interested stakeholders interested in accelerating the adoption of the OpenADR standard for price- and reliability-based demand response. More information can be obtained at http://www.openadr.org/