With the help of a $11.4 million grant from the Department of Energy (DOE) Honeywell was able to convince Southern California Edison (SCE) to use its OpenADR demand response system. Honeywell hopes that one day OpenADR will become a national standard and a big customer like SCE will serve as an excellent proving ground for the platform. Honeywell will customize OpenADR so that it works with SCE’s Critical Peak Pricing program that offers lower rates for commercial and industrial customers and rebates when these large energy consumers are able to turn down consumption on the days of critical peak load – typically in the summertime. According to Sila Kiliccote, program manager at the DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), about 700 of these large SCE customers will participate in the program.
LBNL is discussing similar possibilities with other utilities about using Honeywell’s system. Another firm, Utility Integration Solutions, is developing code that will make OpenADR more broadly adaptable. The platform is expected to be ready in March of 2010.
Today demand response efforts amount to about 14 gigawatts of energy in the United States, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). FERC says that huge amount barely scratches the surface of a 188 gigawatt potential that could be allocated to demand response. SCE believes it can reduce peak power requirements by 1.7 gigawatts, according to Larry Oliva, director of the utility’s tariff programs.
Demand response exists today both as a low-tech affair and as a sophisticated technology. Some demand response aggregators use digitized communications protocols and automated controls to adjust power usage while others rely on word-of-mouth – through email, radio, phone calls, etc. – to alert users that they need to conserve energy.
OpenADR is designed to be a standardized demand response system for utilities and move the technology away from unreliable means, said Kiliccote. SCE, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) are already using the system to manage about 70 megawatts of demand response capacity.
Security remains a tough hurdle for digitized demand response communications. It’s hard to convince factories and offices that outside Internet communications need to have controlling access over internal systems. OpenADR works around that issue by installing servers on-site that search a corporate network for OpenADR messages then allows “approved” messages through.
So far OpenADR has won the standardization battle despite competing systems offered by EnerNoc and others. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the federal body charged with developing smart grid standards, has officially given it that title.
EnerNoc, however, has petitioned the NIST to consider its platform as another standard according to Terry Sick, vice president of product development and engineering at EnerNoc. EnerNoc’s PowerTalk demand response system is built around XMPP, the same protocol that instant messaging is based upon.
Kiliccote said that at PG&E it has been demonstrated that OpenADR can scale down an entire building’s power consumption in less than 60 seconds – well under the 10 minute time limit established by CalISO, the operator of the state’s power grid.
Demand response technology is meant for utilities as well as grid operators and pressure is increasing to automate these efforts in addition to offering variable pricing methods. Both OpenADR and PowerTalk support these technologies.
Honeywell International Inc.
101 Columbia Road
Morristown, NJ 07962
http://www.honeywell.com
Southern California Edison
P.O. Box 6400
Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91729
http://www.sce.com
Utility Integration Solutions
24 Benthill Ct
Lafayette, CA 94549
http://uisol.com
Pacific Gas & Electric
PO Box 56
Avila Beach, CA 93424-0056
http://www.pge.com
San Diego Gas & Electric
P.O. Box 25111
Santa Ana, CA 92799-5111
http://www.sdge.com
EnerNOC
75 Federal Street
Suite 300
Boston, MA 02110
http://www.enernoc.com
Today demand response efforts amount to about 14 gigawatts of energy in the United States, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). FERC says that huge amount barely scratches the surface of a 188 gigawatt potential that could be allocated to demand response. SCE believes it can reduce peak power requirements by 1.7 gigawatts, according to Larry Oliva, director of the utility’s tariff programs.
Demand response exists today both as a low-tech affair and as a sophisticated technology. Some demand response aggregators use digitized communications protocols and automated controls to adjust power usage while others rely on word-of-mouth – through email, radio, phone calls, etc. – to alert users that they need to conserve energy.
OpenADR is designed to be a standardized demand response system for utilities and move the technology away from unreliable means, said Kiliccote. SCE, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) are already using the system to manage about 70 megawatts of demand response capacity.
Security remains a tough hurdle for digitized demand response communications. It’s hard to convince factories and offices that outside Internet communications need to have controlling access over internal systems. OpenADR works around that issue by installing servers on-site that search a corporate network for OpenADR messages then allows “approved” messages through.
So far OpenADR has won the standardization battle despite competing systems offered by EnerNoc and others. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the federal body charged with developing smart grid standards, has officially given it that title.
EnerNoc, however, has petitioned the NIST to consider its platform as another standard according to Terry Sick, vice president of product development and engineering at EnerNoc. EnerNoc’s PowerTalk demand response system is built around XMPP, the same protocol that instant messaging is based upon.
Kiliccote said that at PG&E it has been demonstrated that OpenADR can scale down an entire building’s power consumption in less than 60 seconds – well under the 10 minute time limit established by CalISO, the operator of the state’s power grid.
Demand response technology is meant for utilities as well as grid operators and pressure is increasing to automate these efforts in addition to offering variable pricing methods. Both OpenADR and PowerTalk support these technologies.
Honeywell International Inc.
101 Columbia Road
Morristown, NJ 07962
http://www.honeywell.com
Southern California Edison
P.O. Box 6400
Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91729
http://www.sce.com
Utility Integration Solutions
24 Benthill Ct
Lafayette, CA 94549
http://uisol.com
Pacific Gas & Electric
PO Box 56
Avila Beach, CA 93424-0056
http://www.pge.com
San Diego Gas & Electric
P.O. Box 25111
Santa Ana, CA 92799-5111
http://www.sdge.com
EnerNOC
75 Federal Street
Suite 300
Boston, MA 02110
http://www.enernoc.com
