The OpenADR Alliance recently exhibited at Enlit Europe in Bilbao, Spain. This annual exhibition is a critical opportunity to connect with utilities, grid operators, energy producers, technology innovators, and policymakers worldwide. This year’s three-day event provided fresh viewpoints, revolutionary technologies, and significant cooperation opportunities within the energy industry.

Enlit 2025 fostered in-depth discussions on cutting-edge trends. The show floor featured well-planned themed areas and national pavilions, focusing on key themes such as peer-to-peer energy trading, microgrids, and local renewable energy production.

Speaking at the Powered On Live: The Grid 2025 virtual event back in June this year, I talked about the rapid growth in Europe’s energy demand, due to increased electrification – growth in electric vehicles (EVs) for example – and also data centre use, which is predicted to account for about 5% of total European power consumption by the end of the decade.

My keynote session addressed the challenges and opportunities in building a more resilient energy system, and I raised the question of where and how we can make an impact. There’s little doubt that we need smarter infrastructure, and we are starting to get there.

VPP 2.0 - Trends in Efficient Grid Integration

Don Dulchinos, Director, Market Facilitation, OpenADR Alliance

Recently I sat down with the editor of Illuminaire – a publication focused on AI deployment in industry – to discuss the challenges created by the growth in AI applications leading to a surge in electricity demand by data centers.

Here are my thoughts of the main points we discussed.

It is true everything in Texas is bigger!

Last week the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, TX was the place to be for DISTRIBUTECH 2025. Over 20,000 industry leaders within the energy sector took over the downtown area.  Every year this conference brings together top experts from around the world to discuss some of the biggest challenges facing the energy sector, such as extreme weather events like wildfires and hurricanes, the rapid adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), and the rise of AI.  

The increase of EVs, and the expansion of data centers are areas seen to be increasing energy consumption when grid reliability is currently a major concern. These challenges were addressed throughout the week in many of the keynotes and packed sessions, as well as in conversations on the exhibit floor.

For the OpenADR Alliance, we kicked the week off with an announcement of our first OpenADR 3.0 certified products with E.ON, EVoke Systems and Universal Devices. OpenADR 3.0 provides highly secure, fast, and reliable two-way information exchange for utility applications with simple communications needs. It was developed to simplify messaging, including pricing, offering more dynamic pricing structures, as well as better enabling greenhouse gas signaling, grid code adjustments, and capacity management communication.

Reflections from IESNA – by Don Dulchinos, Director of Market Facilitation, OpenADR Alliance

As we set our focus on the upcoming DistribuTECH Conference in Dallas next week I wanted to pause and take a moment to share with our utility partners a few observations from last month’s Intersolar and Energy Storage North America (IESNA) in San Diego. The OpenADR Alliance exhibited along with a number of members in the solar and energy storage space.

Annual Report Available for Download!

In 2024, the OpenADR Alliance witnessed significant expansion with a notable 40 new members, resulting in a cumulative count of over 200 members spanning North America, Asia and Europe, validating the Alliance’s influence. The Alliance as of today has 319 certified products and is now working with 10 approved test facilities in eight countries.

Rolf Bienert, Managing and Technical Director, OpenADR Alliance

Earlier this month, I posted my ‘reflections’ blog on our really inspiring 2^nd OpenADR User European Conference in November co-hosted by the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ).

Managed EV charging companies are helping to drive the growth of OpenADR adoption in the past three years. We are seeing this momentum continue in 2024, with a wave of companies joining the Alliance who are offering a different focus and innovative new business models to the growing EV marketplace.

One such member is Wevo Energy who joined us on our recent webinar to discuss New Frontiers in EV Charging. Here we find out a bit more about the company as we talk to Marina Hod, who’s leading Wevo Energy's EV charging optimization business in North America.

The transition to electric vehicles (EV) is central to achieving net zero goals. For the UK market in particular, these goals are ambitious. The date to phase out the sale of all new petrol and diesel cars was recently pushed back to 2035, but with a newly appointed government in place since July the original 2030 deadline is set to be restored.

While no mention was made of this in the King’s Speech during the recent state opening of Parliament, which sets out the government’s legislative plans, we can expect to see more details published soon.

Ever wondered what about other standards like Energy Star and how they co-exist with OpenADR and CTA-2045/EcoPort? Following our recent webinar on connected appliances, we talk to Spencer Borison, Head of US at contributing member Codibly, about how these standards can work together to drive smart energy management.

Reaching a new milestone is always an exciting moment. The OpenADR Alliance recently announced reaching 200 members, something we are particularly proud of as a global industry organization that started out supporting technical communications standards over a decade ago.

Our goal remains the same, with the OpenADR standard going from strength to strength with the launch of OpenADR 3.0 last year. But like other industry bodies, we need to evolve and adapt as the industry – and our members – change.

The OpenADR Alliance learned a lot representing the EcoPort/CTA-2045 interface and testing program at the AHR Expo in Chicago last week. The AHR Expo brings together manufacturers and suppliers of all sizes and specialties to share ideas and showcase the future of HVACR technology.  We shared a booth with LonMark International, a partner focused on building management interfaces who introduced a new building interoperability architecture that encompasses both EcoPort and OpenADR.

 The most encouraging part of the show was seeing several EcoPort^TM–certified products on the show floor.

This week is particularly exciting one for us at the OpenADR Alliance. As we gather at Enlit Europe (November 28-30th) with industry leaders and several of our members, all part of the growing community of companies looking to solve the most important energy transition issues, we are delighted to announce the new version of the OpenADR communications standard.

OpenADR 3.0 is an important milestone for us as the industry body responsible for driving the development, adoption, and compliance of OpenADR. It’s also a significant step in the development of communications standard for utilities, operators, and aggregators, as they look to manage the growing range of distributed energy resources.

EVs and e-mobility set to take centre stage at Enlit Europe 2023

The New Hampshire Electric Co-op pilots transactive energy rate program using OpenADR

Transactive energy is an intelligent, multi-layer communications process that organizes energy generation, consumption, and delivery.  During a transactive energy occurrence, power suppliers, energy markets and distributed energy resources (DERs), including electric vehicles and batteries, exchange to negotiate energy requirements and pricing.

Today security concerns, the economy, and daily life choices require a flexible and durable electricity system. Transactive energy is designed to improve energy efficiency, which results in a more resilient and reliable power grid.

In the electricity power industry, ranging from petroleum, gas, coal and nuclear power, balancing supply and demand is crucial to maintaining a reliable electric grid.   As the world increasingly focuses on renewable energy, Distributed Energy Resources, and electrification, Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) are garnering more attention, especially in the US. These VPPs present an innovative solution,     enabling  local grid operators to use energy flexibility to ensure a more stable electricity supply, improved energy efficiency, and enhanced grid capacity.

Swell Energy and SunPower, members of OpenADR, are important players in the transformative shift, having established VPPs that offer new value to utilities and their customers. A   VPP is defined as a cloud-based network with a decentralized multi-asset ecosystem consisting of Distributed Energy Resource (DERs)—such as batteries, EVs, smart plugs and thermostats. Controlled by grid operators or third party aggregators,  these resources can   be monitored, forecasted and optimized with bi-directional communications between components for a more efficient and resilient power grid.  VPPs are proving to be a key resource capable of providing resource adequacy and other grid services at a negative net cost to the utility.

The OpenADR Alliance held our first European OpenADR++ Users Conference from 6-7 June in London. It was two days packed full of keynotes, use cases, workshops, networking and more. (All presentation links may be found in the agenda here.) The more than 100 attendees came from all over the U.K. and Europe, with guests coming from as far as China and New Zealand.  This conference is the latest in series of activities signaling the expansion of interest in OpenADR in the European market and new Alliance membership among European companies.

The conference was significant not only as the first such major conference in Europe, but also that it was hosted by the U.K. Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). DESNZ led the development of PAS 1878, incorporating OpenADR as one of the requirements and criteria that an electrical appliance needs to meet in order to perform and be classified as an energy smart appliance (ESA). This DESNZ action not only lowers costs and promotes innovation in the U.K., but also demonstrates U.K. leadership in promoting published standards for international adoption.