News
From Around the World: 5 Groundbreaking Smart Grid Projects
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
The smart grid is a global phenomenon and we can learn from pioneers wherever they are. (Even the nation-state of California!) Here is our globe-trotting roundup of five projects that are charting new territories.
OpenADR-Certified Products Coming This Year
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
OpenADR is setting standards for 2.0 and gaining momentum outside of California.
OpenADR Alliance isn’t waiting for federal standards to push beyond the edges of California. In fact, it’s gunning to be the national standard. The nonprofit corporation, which fosters the development, adoption and compliance of the Open Automated Demand Response standard, is expecting to have certified interoperable automated demand response products by the end of this year.
OpenADR Progresses Toward International Automated Demand Response Rollouts
Monday, March 21, 2011
Smart Grid® News recently announced that Alstom Grid has acquired the U.S-based Smart Grid vendor, Utility Integration Solutions, Inc (UISOL). Alstom Grid has operations across the World and strong in European and Middle East markets.
UISOL is supporting Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) on Open Automated Demand Response communication specifications (OpenADR), primarily in deployment of the OpenADR standards and development of Open Source toolkit for wide-scale adoption of OpenADR. This acquisition has positive implications for technology developed by Berkeley Lab and its research partners in mainstreaming the OpenADR technology to the national and international markets.
Under development by UISOL, the Open Source version will offer a Java-based OpenADR client/server implementation that provides a lightweight platform for developing and testing OpenADR clients, complete end-to-end demonstrations, proof of concept testing, and capability for small-scale deployments. The Open Source version will provide code examples and guidance for developing commercial-strength server products.
UISOL also recently announced that they successfully integrated OpenADR into their DRBizNet™ product, providing capability that allows utilities to fully automate all demand response business and operational process. This acquisition follows the Honeywell acquisition of Smart Grid start-up, Akuacom, last year that offers OpenADR technology solutions.
Over 60 energy management and control systems vendors offer products (clients) based on OpenADR, a communication standard under development by Berkeley Lab and U.S. Smart Grid standards activity. Projects in Quincy and Tallahassee Florida, NV Energy, Bonneville Power Administration, and Sacramento Municipal Utility District identified OpenADR in Smart Grid plans. A commercial building project by National Resources Canada and a California Independent System Operator project to integrate renewable resources further demonstrate the range of OpenADR applications. The Berkeley Lab has also seen strong development interest from South Korea and India. Recently, the OpenADR Alliance® was launched to "foster the development, adoption, and compliance of the OpenADR standards through collaboration, education, training, testing, and certification."
Resources:
Intermittent Renewable Resources and OpenADR Integration Pilot - Technical Training
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Demand Response as a Resource for Managing Intermittency of Renewable Generation.
Mary Ann Piette Appears on a List of the Top 25 Movers and Shakers in Cleantech for 2010
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Mary Ann Piette, deputy of the Building Technologies Department at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Mary Ann is an energy geek we love. She develops and evaluates low-energy and demand response technologies for buildings. She specializes in commissioning, energy information systems, benchmarking and diagnostics. And she has written more than 100 papers on efficiency and demand response. In 2006, she received the Benner Award at the National Conference on Building Commissioning for contributions to making commissioning business as usual.
Residential Energy Display Survey (REDS) Pilot
Thursday, December 23, 2010
From: Charles McParland
Date: Thu, Dec 23, 2010 at 6:59 PM
Subject: (REDS Project) Draft specification for a utility HAN/residential LAN gateway
All,
Attached is a draft software specification for a utility HAN / residential LAN gateway. As discussed at the REDS vendor meeting in Nov., the intent of this specification is to promote the implementation of a gateway that will allow residential display of near real-time Smart Meter energy consumption data. Please note that, since we anticipate the use of existing display devices, this draft covers only the design of the gateway itself.
We would appreciate any and all comments to CPMcParland@lbl.gov as early as possible — prior to Jan. 7th for incorporation into subsequent drafts. A follow-on phone conference meeting is planned for mid January to allow further discussion and refinement of this specification.
We appreciate your effort in reviewing this document and, in the spirit of the coming holidays, wish you all the best — and look forward to a great, productive New Year.
Regards,
Chuck McParland,
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
OpenADR 2.0 Briefing to Stakeholders and Industry
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Purpose: Facilitate OpenADR stakeholders' understanding and comments on draft OpenADR v2.0 profiles.
Background: OpenADR is standardized by standards body. The body released draft for public review, ending Dec. 27.
Briefing: Update on OpenADR v2.0 within national Smart Grid standards activity, links to OpenADR v1.0, and draft review.
Conclusions:
- Backward compatibility of commercial deployments to be retained.
- Further revisions based on stakeholder inputs and requirements.
- Public comments will address wider industry/stakeholder needs.
Next Steps:
- OpenADR v2.0 will become formal standards (in/before Summer 2011).
- Industry represented OpenADR Alliance will advance OpenADR v2.0.
- OpenADR standards will go through regulatory process for adoption.
Open Automated Demand Response Specification Poised to Become Smart Grid Standard
Friday, November 12, 2010
Amid increasing demand for energy, those working to transform the existing U.S. electric grid into a smart grid are taking a vested interest in Automated Demand Response (Auto-DR) technology.
Auto-DR can improve electric grid reliability and reduce electricity costs by preventing costly outages and reducing average electricity prices. However, the Auto-DR technology is not effective in a vacuum or without a standardized information exchange for both price and reliability signals. That’s where the proposed standard called Open Auto-DR (OpenADR) comes in.
Vendors Demonstrate Open Automated Demand Response at UIC2010 Conference
Thursday, November 4, 2010
LAFAYETTE, Calif., Nov. 4, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- A group of demand response (DR) technology vendors demonstrated an end-to-end integration of their demand response technologies using emerging interoperability standards at the 6th annual Utility Integration Conference (UIC2010) in Philadelphia, November 2-3, 2010. UIC is an annual industry technical forum for utility professionals.
OpenADR Alliance Formed by the Industry to Advance OpenADR
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
MORGAN HILL, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Leading Smart Grid industry organizations today announced the formation of 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). Smart Grid standards for Automated Demand Response (Auto-DR) will ultimately lower the cost, improve the reliability and accelerate the speed of Auto-DR and Smart Grid implementations across the U.S.
"A standardized framework for Auto-DR products facilitated by the OpenADR Alliance will pave the way for market adoption of Smart Grid solutions that improve customer satisfaction and grid reliability."
A critical component of the national Smart Grid initiative, Auto-DR encourages businesses and homeowners to reduce their electricity consumption at critical "peak demand" times, or in response to changes in market price, by automating message delivery from the utility directly to the customer. OpenADR standardizes a message format used for Auto-DR so that dynamic price and reliability signals can be delivered in a uniform and interoperable data model among utilities, Independent System Operator (ISOs) and customer's energy management and control systems.
