Deploying Systems Interoperability and Customer Choice within Smart Grid

In 2012, significant development of Smart Grid interoperability standards for customers and their systems readied those standards for deployments in commercial demand-response programs. These standards have led to the development of interoperable systems and products for communication between the grid-operating entities (e.g., independent systems operators, utilities) and customer energy management systems. This paper summarizes the efforts to standardize OpenADR in the United States, and traces its evolution from OpenADR 1.0 to an emerging success story, OpenADR 2.0. It also describes the development and deployment of OpenADR and how grid-operating entities and customers can use open and secure communication and technologies to provide interoperability and customer choice. It focuses on the development of OpenADR 2.0 specifications and the OpenADR Alliance (Alliance), a non-profit stakeholder and industry consortium with a mission to create “true” and “secure” interoperability and deployment for OpenADR 2.0, including providing the services of the testing and certification authority. Finally, the paper provides insights into interoperability (with examples), the direction of the Alliance, and applicability of OpenADR experiences for the Smart Grid.