MORGAN HILL, Calif., May 15, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The OpenADR Alliance, a nonprofit corporation created to foster the development, adoption and compliance of a Smart Grid standard known as Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR), today announced the addition of several industry-leading members, including AutoGrid Systems and EnerNOC at the Sponsor level; Alstom Grid, Cisco, Comverge, REGEN Energy, Wireless Glue, Universal Devices and Ventyx; an ABB Company at the Contributor level; Duke Energy, Hawaiian Electric Company, Institute for Information Industry and Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute as Adopters. With the addition of these companies and 27 individual members, the alliance's total membership has reached 71 members with representatives from utilities, independent system operators (ISOs), regulators and controls suppliers.
The strong momentum of the OpenADR Alliance is highlighted by its 44 percent growth in membership since December of last year, as well as the successful testing of OpenADR2.0a-compliant products. This progress further validates the OpenADR standard, and increases its ability to lower the cost, improve the reliability and accelerate the speed of automated demand response implementations for the smart grid.
"Industry momentum is clearly growing globally for standards-based DR. The addition of our new members and our rapidly-growing membership base reinforces the importance policy makers, utilities and equipment manufacturers place on interoperable energy management systems," said Barry Haaser, managing director of OpenADR Alliance. "The imminent release of the OpenADR 2.0a specification, coupled with availability of our new test tool will allow us to support the rapid deployment of OpenADR certified devices this summer."
"Open standards that define a crisp program for compliance are critical to interoperable systems which in turn enable Demand Response to achieve a mainstream market," said Amit Narayan, president and CEO at AutoGrid Systems. "The OpenADR Alliance has energized an ecosystem that will accelerate the cost-effective scaling of Demand Response in the market."
"A standards-based infrastructure is a key step in improving ease-of-participation for energy users who want to be more engaged in active energy management," said David Hardin, senior director of Smart Grid standards at EnerNOC, Inc. "OpenADR 2.0 represents an important development in standardizing how systems interact with each other across the grid, and this improved interoperability will facilitate quicker, more seamless, and more efficient connections between participants in demand response."
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 works with related organizations such as the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel, Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB), Utilities Communications Architecture International User's Group (UCAIug), Wi-Fi Alliance™, ZigBee Alliance™ and others as appropriate.
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/
The OpenADR logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=12567
