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.

It’s that time of the year when we often get invited to ‘look ahead’ and comment on what we as an industry alliance see as the main trends in the coming year. Just this month, we have been quoted talking about the growing demand for electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure in City Transport & Traffic Innovation (CTTi) magazine.

But this is nothing new. EV charging has been ‘on trend’ for some time and still we talk about the need for equitable access to charging points.