OpenADR Advances

An important goal for the advancement of smart grid deployments is to enable buildings to dynamically respond to the supply of electricity. Buildings should respond to grid event and price signals in order to manage peak demands on the electric grid and fluctuations of intermittent renewable generation. The Open Automated Demand Response—OpenADR—communications standard is an important tool to help develop this market for demand response (DR). This article reviews progress in the development and implementation of OpenADR, focusing on updates since the release of OpenADR 2.0 in December, 2011. We introduce the OpenADR Alliance, established in late 2010 to foster the adoption of OpenADR 2.0 profile specifications and provide a testing and certification program to meet U.S. smart grid interoperability goals. The Alliance has developed two profiles of OpenADR to meet the needs of simple DR clients (receiving DR event signals) up to full-featured implementations that enable bidding into wholesale markets. In addition, this article presents details of a pilot conducted in spring 2012 where OpenADR 2.0 was implemented for wholesale DR programs. OpenADR will be a key standard for moving the smart grid forward, both in the U.S. as well as internationally.