[December 07, 2011] OpenADR Alliance Experiences Membership Growth Tweet MORGAN HILL, Calif., Dec. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Membership breaks 40 with addition of Ergon Energy, Kansas City Power & Light, Lockheed Martin, Nuri Telecom, Open Access Technology International Inc., Our Home Spaces, San Diego Gas & Electric, Silver Spring Networks, Tendril and Tridium The OpenADR Alliance, a nonprofit corporation created to foster the development, adoption and compliance of a Smart Grid standard known as Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) achieved an important milestone as its membership now exceeds 40. New OpenADR Alliance member companies supporting the development of this important smart grid standard include Ergon Energy, Lockheed Martin, Kansas City Power & Light, Nuri Telecom, Open Access Technology International Inc., Our Home Spaces, San Diego Gas & Electric, Silver Spring Networks, Tendril and Tridium. New member KCP&L recently hosted the first OpenADR PlugFest, which gave OpenADR members the first opportunity to test early implementations of the OpenADR 2.0 profile for interoperability, prior to finalizing the profile specification. "We were delighted to host the first OpenADR PlugFest which we view as a key first step in the development of a certified OpenADR 2.0 profile that we can implement on our DOE SmartGrid Demonstration Project," said Ed Hedges, Manager SmartGrid Technology Planning, KCP&L. "The OpenADR Alliance is providing two critical pieces that will accelerate interoperability and market adoption, beyond the core standardization effort: creating an industry-specific profile of the base standard, and establishing an Interoperability Testing and Certification Authority," said David Mollerstuen, Standards Development Architect at another new member company, Tendril. "These pieces are foundational to our strategic goals of building standards-based Smart Grid products that provide tangible benefits to utilities and energy consumers. As such, we're committed to this important work and to continued industry collaboration on the development, adoption and compliance with the OpenADR profile." Members of the OpenADR Alliance also recently completed a productive two-day meeting, hosted by testing partner Intertek, where members made significant progress defining the OpenADR feature-set and compliance requirements which are important elements used in the development of its certification program. "It is encouraging to see industry interest in the OpenADR standard growing worldwide through the recent increase in membership," said Mary Ann Piette, chairwomen of the OpenADR Alliance and research director of Demand Response Research Center, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (Berkeley Lab). "OpenADR members are working diligently to develop a certification and compliance program to enable the mass deployment of automated demand response solutions in 2012." About the OpenADR AllianceOpenADR Alliance is fostering the development, adoption, and compliance of the Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) standard through collaboration, education, training, testing, and certification. The OpenADR Alliance intends to work with related organizations such as the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel, Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB), Utilities Communications Architecture International User's Group (UCAIug), Wi-Fi Alliance(TM), ZigBee Alliance(TM) and others as appropriate. The OpenADR Alliance is open to all interested stakeholders sharing a common interest in facilitating and accelerating the use and adoption of the OpenADR standard for price- and reliability-based demand response. More information can be obtained at http://www.openadr.org/. SOURCE OpenADR Alliance [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]