Communications of the ACM
Here Comes the Smart Grid
Lawrence Berkeley Lab's Mary Ann Piette says the OpenADR specification will "assist electric utilities to help their commercial and industrial customers participate in power pricing programs that incorporate automated demand response."
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
A new data model developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and their colleagues at other universities and in the private sector will help facilities and buildings save power through automated demand response technology, and advance the development of the Smart Grid.
The researchers who developed Open ADR (Open Automated Demand Response) are part of the Demand Response Research Center (DRRC), a center funded by the California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research Program. The DRRC's goal is to develop technologies to make it possible for buildings and facilities to adopt demand response as a way of saving peak power use, and reducing stress on the electric grid during times of high energy demand.
"The purpose of this specification is to help building and facilities managers implement automated demand response in their facilities, as well as assist electric utilities to help their commercial and industrial customers participate in power pricing programs that incorporate automated demand response," said Mary Ann Piette, the Deputy Head of the Building Technologies Department, and Research Director of the Demand Response Research Center.
"OpenADR also helps manufacturers of building automation equipment design products for Smart Grid implementation, and power aggregators incorporate demand response into their work. OpenADR builds on six years of research in California to develop autoDR technology and demonstrate it in buildings with our utility and commercial partners."
With widespread interest nationally in turning the electric grid into a "Smart Grid," the new OpenADR specification will help more facilities adopt, and building automation companies develop products for Auto DR, by providing a common, open specification that all parties can use as a reference.
What is DR, and AutoDR?
Demand response, DR, is a central part of the so-called "Smart Grid." DR is the process of managing energy use dynamically through cooperation between power customers, their electric utility, and the electric system’s operator (the independent system operator, or ISO). When the electrical grid is near capacity for any reason — for example, when too many air conditioners start laboring on a hot summer's day — the ISO informs electric utilities and power consumers that there's a problem in the offing.
While shutting building systems down by hand can help reduce the overall electric demand, manual interventions are not always reliable, consistent, or persistent. AutoDR provides an automated alternative to manual response.
AutoDR is the technology and communications platform developed by the Demand Response Research Center, which was launched by the California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research program at Berkeley Lab in 2003, to support all forms of demand response. Under Piette's direction, the DRRC manages a portfolio of research projects that address pricing, valuation, behavior, building dynamics, and technology development.
Features of OpenADR
The OpenADR Specification uses open, non-proprietary, industry-approved data models — any interested party can develop products around it. Its communications interfaces and protocols are flexible, platform-independent, interoperable, and transparent to end-to-end technologies and software systems," says Piette.
An open specification helps encourage innovation and interoperability. It allows system designers to build on existing controls and communications strategies used within their facilities to reduce technology operation and maintenance costs, stranded assets, and obsolesce in technology.
System designers can integrate their facility's energy management and control systems, centralized lighting, and other end-use devices that can receive a relay or Internet signals using, for example, eXtensible Markup Language (XML).
The specification includes provisions for including opt-out or override functions through a Web portal. Research on facility managers preferences suggest that providing manual control over automatic, pre-programmed changes in building energy use is an essential feature for facility managers interested in joining utility demand response programs.
The OpenADR specification was developed by: Mary Ann Piette, Girish Ghatikar, and Sila Kiliccote of the Demand Response Research Center at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Ed Koch and Dan Hennage, Akuacom, Peter Palensky, University of Pretoria, David Holmberg, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Dave Robin, Automated Logic Controls, Jim Butler, Cimetrics, and Charles McParland, Computational Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
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