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.

The standards-based approach aligns with recent developments in Europe, as underscored by presenter Robert Bohm of EEBUS, who described the interoperability between OpenADR and the EEBUS standard interface for energy management in building automation. The Alliance is following up this interoperability work with active participation in DKE, CENELEC and other standards bodies in Europe.

The OpenADR’s long time orientation toward standards collaboration began with an interoperability agreement with the Open ChargePoint Protocol (OCPP). This proved prescient with the explosion of electric vehicle (EV) charging activity in recent years and the appearance of many new managed EV charging companies. The Users Conference highlighted three European-based EV charging companies, AMPECO, GreenFlux and Kaluza, who are among the more than 50 such companies that now have OpenADR-certified products.

Their presentations led to a lively workshop session that involved audience members including representatives from Ford and Tesla.  The OpenADR Alliance just last year added a representative of new member Ford Motor Company to its Board of Directors, reflecting the epic structural challenges now facing the utilities as EV charging becomes a new growth area for the industry. (OpenADR will be represented in panel discussions in Detroit…)

A core value of the Conference gave users access to new developments supporting fast and easy adoption of the OpenADR standard.  Conference Primary Sponsor Resillion was present, underscoring a European presence of testing and certification infrastructure available to all OpenADR implementers. And a workshop panel introduced an update to the OpenADR specification which allows use of the latest software development tools, along with some current views of new cases enabled by the update.

This OpenADR Users Conference is just one in a series of Europe-focused initiatives:

-          Earlier this month, Rolf spoke at the U.K.’s PoweredOn Live event about V2X and how EVs could be the missing piece in grid flexibility.

-          Collaboration with Elaad nl, an innovation center currently focused on Smart Charging Infrastructure (Elaad’s conference presentation featured the use case of OpenADR to enable dynamic, grid aware EV charging)

-          The OpenADR Alliance will again be exhibiting at the Enlit Europe conference in November, and is hoping to educate and collaborate across the energy ecosystem in Europe.

-          Alliance Managing Director Rolf Bienert will speak at FlexCon in the Netherlands in September.  The conference is co-sponsored by smartEn, a European business association. The Alliance is a SmartEn member and is supporting SmartEn efforts to speed the deployment of energy flexibility and renewable energy resources across Europe.

Rolf is now based in Europe and looks forward to more easily facilitating partnerships and supporting adoption of OpenADR and the OpenADR Alliance across the range of European flexibility and renewable energy initiatives.