OpenADR Specification Developed by Demand Response Research Center Boosted by Recovery Act Grant to Honeywell

December 11, 2009

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded Honeywell an $11.4 million grant to help Southern California Edison implement automated demand response under OpenADR, the Open Automated Demand Response Communications Specification.

The grant was one of several Smart Grid Investment Grants awarded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

OpenADR was developed by researchers at the PIER Demand Response Research Center. The Center is based in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The DRRC is funded by the California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program.

The Honeywell OpenADR program will provide 80 MW of demand response under SCE's Critical Peak Pricing program. Honeywell will use the grant to help commercial and industrial facilities in the SCE service territory implement automated demand response energy management strategies to reduce energy use. The program will support nearly 700 customers in SCE's critical peak pricing program, which provides a rate discount to customers who can reduce or shift power during periods of peak electrical consumption during summer months.

When fully implemented, these customers will deliver 80 MW of peak power reduction.

"This is a very exciting milestone for OpenADR and an example of a major technology transfer success story," says Mary Ann Piette, Research Director of the Demand Response Research Center and Deputy Head of EETD's Building Technology Department.

Three California utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric, San Diego Gas & Electric, and Southern California Edison currently use OpenADR to manage about 70 MW of demand response capacity.