MORGAN HILL, CALIF., Feb. 2, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The OpenADR Alliance today announced the release of the OpenADR 2.0 Demand Response Program Guide. This guide recommends OpenADR best practices for virtual top nodes (VTNs) and virtual end nodes (VENs) to help standardize the implementation of specific demand response (DR) programs. In addition, the Alliance has developed a certification program, based on the DR Guide, to strengthen the interoperability of products certified as OpenADR compliant, a simple add-on to the current OpenADR "b" Profile Certification to support utilities worldwide.
Walt Johnson oversees OpenADR and related connected devices research efforts in his role as technical executive at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). "There is tremendous value in standardized connectivity," he said. "We are pleased that the Alliance is taking this step as we continue to strive toward interoperability and to bring lower cost technology to the market."
"The new OpenADR 2.0 DR Program Implementation Guide should help utilities to utilize the OpenADR standard to implement different kinds of Auto DR programs. The Guide provides sample automated DR signals for CPP, CBP, DLC for Smart Thermostat, EVSE and other common DR programs in the market. We hope this guide will help utilities to leverage some of the OpenADR certified technologies such as Energy Management System and Smart Thermostat to make it easier for customers to participate in DR programs," said Albert Chiu, Expert Product Manager at PG &E.
"Automating DR programs continues to be the overarching goal of the OpenADR Alliance," said Rolf Bienert, technical director, OpenADR Alliance. "To help reach this goal, and expand deployment of ADR programs and adoption of OpenADR certified products overall, we created this guide to provide a set of clear recommendations that help utilities and manufacturers alike address what is required to deploy a typical DR program."
"As the industry works to create a more standardized eco-system, we can design and implement DR programs much faster, which lowers the costs of program design and implementation as well as the costs of the systems and software to execute these programs," Bienert added.
Today's DR programs, even when they use the OpenADR standard for automating messages, are unique to each utility. They often require significant programming and integration efforts resulting in increased deployment costs and time-to-market. The OpenADR 2.0 Program Guide provides utilities with standardized templates of DR program models that can be adapted for their own DR program implementations, including:
- Critical peak pricing,
- Capacity bidding program,
- Thermostat program (Thermostat)/direct load control (DLC)
- Fast DR dispatch (Fast DR)/ancillary services program
- Residential electric vehicle (EV Charging) DR program
- Public station electric vehicle (EV Charging) real-time pricing program
- Distributed energy resources (DER) DR program
The guide also provides equipment manufacturers with a better understanding of these DR program usage models for use in their control systems.
Today a number of utilities and manufacturers support the DR Program Guide including: Pacific Gas & Electric (PG &E), Portland General Electric, EPRI, AutoGrid, BPL Global, Blue Pillar, CaSA, Encycle, Fuji Electric, Honeywell, IPKeys, OATI, Kyocera, Schneider Electric, Steffes and Universal Devices. Click here for testimonials about the new DR Guide from OpenADR Alliance members.
NOTE: Be sure to visit the OpenADR Alliance at DistribuTECH 2016 in booth 413 to learn more about the DR Guide and co-exhibitors: BPL Global, GridPoint, Gridwiz, Honeywell, IPKeys and QualityLogic for a series of Auto Demand Response presentations. To view the theater schedule please visit here. If interested in setting up a meeting at DistribuTECH please contact Shannon@openadr.org.
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/.