New Collaboration Accelerates Smart Grid Adoption for Commercial Buildings

   
LONMARK International and OpenADR Alliance Agreement Enables Building-to-Grid Connectivity, Facilitates Ubiquitous Energy Conservation and Management

Commercial buildings will soon be able to connect to the “Smart Grid” with ease thanks to a new strategic relationship between industry alliances LONMARK® International and OpenADR.  LONMARK, a non-profit association for the certification, education and promotion of interoperability standards for control networking, and 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), today announced that they are working together to enable interoperability between certified products that will better enable commercial buildings to manage their energy uses on the Smart Grid.

The “Smart Grid”—digital networks connecting utilities, power-delivery systems and buildings—is designed to keep these buildings from overtaxing the power grid or having to reduce power consumption.  Today, more than one-third of U.S. commercial buildings have some form of energy management and control systems installed, which makes them ideal candidates to participate in utility mandated Demand Response programs using standard interfaces such as OpenADR.

“In order for buildings to benefit from OpenADR they must have automated control systems that can be programmed to respond to price and DR signals without negatively impacting comfort or productivity,” said Girish Ghatikar, a member of the OpenADR Alliance board of directors.  “Having access to energy management systems based on technology like LONMARK standards can help people better manage their energy consumption.”

LONMARK allows buildings connected to the smart grid to utilize granular automation and enhanced control strategies to better maximize energy efficiency, without impacting client comfort and productivity.  Buildings participating in an OpenADR program can leverage the existing building automation systems and protocols through a well-defined, standard interface to accept the OpenADR signal using a common language over any existing IP-based communications network such as the Internet.  Through a pre-programmed set of events, the building automation system can reduce load according to the messages it receives.  In addition, it may bring real-time energy consumption information back to the utility or service provider.

“One of our primary goals at LONMARK is to help all buildings—whether commercial, industrial or residential—enjoy a more secure and intelligent energy infrastructure,” said Tracy Markie, chairman of LONMARK International.  “Working with OpenADR and other organizations with similar goals facilitates this process, making ubiquitous energy conservation and management much more obtainable by all.”