Demand response “is transitioning” from event-based demand response to continuous price-based demand flexibility, says a paper from the California Load Flexibility Research and Development Hub (CalFlexHub) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Given that transition, a communication standard known as OpenADR 3.0, which can handle price-based demand flexibility, “is the logical choice to become the de facto standard for demand response communication globally,” the paper says.
With price-based demand flexibility, customers can take advantage of lower wholesale energy prices when solar or wind generation is high, using more energy at those low-cost times. That also helps owners of solar and wind plants by reducing curtailment and supporting prices when they are lowest.
CalFlexHub is developing flexible demand appliance standards to enable equipment to respond to price signals. The first standard, for pool controls, is set to take effect in California this year, as the state develops additional standards for electric storage water heaters and five more types of appliances.
To further advance price-based flexibility, CalFlexHub endorsed in its paper an information exchange standard known as OpenADR 3.0, which can support price-based demand flexibility as well as traditional demand response and virtual power plants.
Price-based demand flexibility offered to customers on an opt-in basis could yield annual system savings of $33 to 50 billion nationwide, found a modeling study by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
California utilities are already using the OpenADR 3.0 standard to communicate dynamic prices to customers, said Mary Ann Piette, associate laboratory director at Berkeley Lab and a co-author of the paper.
Interoperability
As explained by the OpenADR Alliance, automated demand response (ADR) “consists of fully automated signaling from a utility, Independent System Operator (ISO), Regional Transmission Operator (RTO) or other appropriate entity to provide automated connectivity to customer end-use control systems, devices and strategies.”
OpenADR, the Alliance explains, “standardizes the message format used for ADR so that dynamic price and reliability signals can be delivered,” adding that “while previously deployed ADR systems are automated, they are not standardized or interoperable.”
CalFlexHub’s paper emphasizes the importance of interoperability, saying that to date, “grid entities have created diverse models” for ADR, with the differences making it “difficult for manufacturers to embed demand response capabilities into products and for utilities to gain wide uptake of demand response by customers.”
Easy to use
Among several advantages of OpenADR 3.0 compared to the previous version, OpenADR 2.0b, is its simpler code that is easier to understand, the paper says. “The core data model only requires three pages of text to describe.”
The paper’s lead author Bruce Nordman, a senior scientist at Berkeley Lab, said in a LinkedIn post that OpenADR 3.0 is “suitable for putting into any device that can do Internet Protocol (IP) communications. It covers all the useful applications” that OpenADR 2.0b covers, “plus some new ones. It works well for basic cases like distributing highly dynamic prices for electricity. I expect it will become dominant for demand response in a manageably short period of time.”
Grid capacity
Highly dynamic pricing and OpenADR 3.0 can also address constraints on grid capacity, the paper says. Highly dynamic pricing will reduce grid capacity issues by shifting some load from high-price peak times to low-price times.
OpenADR 3.0 can also address grid constraints arising from electrification of vehicles and heating, through a permission-based mechanism that enables a customer to subscribe to a fixed amount of grid capacity and submit digital automated requests for extra capacity for a specific time duration.
To address “excess” on-site PV production, OpenADR 3.0 has a limit-based dynamic operating envelope mechanism, as used in Australia, that can limit each customer’s maximum export to the grid.
Next steps
For entities considering implementing OpenADR 3.0, the paper describes a sample implementation “that demonstrates how it can easily be implemented and integrated.”
Among recommended next steps, the paper calls for utilities offering “attractive tariffs with highly dynamic prices,” where “customers should expect that these routinely result in lower bills.” It also calls for “definition of a mechanism for customers to have choice between tariffs and virtual power plant optimization, separately for each flexible device.”
Standard and consistent use of OpenADR 3.0, the paper says, “can lead to flexibility which is widespread, effective, low-cost, and valuable to utilities.”
The CalFlexHub paper is titled “Transforming Demand Response using OpenADR 3.0.”
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