Analysis of Open Automated Demand Response Deployments in California and Guidelines to Transition to Industry Standards

This report reviews the Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) deployments within the territories serviced by California’s investor-owned utilities (IOUs) and the transition from the OpenADR 1.0 specification to the formal standard—OpenADR 2.0. As demand response service providers and customers start adopting OpenADR 2.0, it is necessary to ensure that the existing Automated Demand Response (AutoDR) infrastructure investment continues to be useful and takes advantage of the formal standard and its many benefits. This study focused on OpenADR deployments and systems used by the California IOUs and included a summary of the OpenADR deployment from the U.S. Department of Energy-funded demonstration conducted by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD). Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory collected and analyzed data about OpenADR 1.0 deployments, categorized architectures, developed a data model mapping to understand the technical compatibility of each version, and compared the capabilities and features of the two specifications. The findings, for the first time, provided evidence of the total enabled load shed and average first cost for system enablement in the IOU and SMUD service territories. The OpenADR 2.0a profile specification semantically supports AutoDR system architectures and data propagation with a testing and certification program that promotes interoperability, scaled deployments by multiple vendors, and provides additional features that support future services.