The OpenADR Alliance, an industry group that supports the development and adoption of Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) standards, has announced that investor-owned utilities (IOUs) Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison plan to require the OpenADR 2.0 standard for new customers in their demand response (DR) enabling technology programs in 2013.
According to the alliance, OpenADR is an open global standard that enables electricity providers and system operators to automatically communicate DR signals with each other and their customers using a common language over any existing IP-based communications network.
"The availability of products complying with the OpenADR 2.0 standard will allow us to reduce the cost and improve the performance of our AutoDR programs," says Albert Chiu, product manager of PG&E. "Using an OpenADR-based system, our customers can better manage their energy use during DR events, and the utility can minimize stranded assets at the same time. The automated system has provided PG&E and our customers a better way to manage DR resources."
