SAN JOSE, Calif. — LonMark International, a nonprofit 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), announced that they are working together to enable interoperability between certified products that will better allow commercial buildings to manage their energy use on the smart grid.

According to the OpenADR Alliance, today more than one-third of U.S. commercial buildings have some form of energy management and control system installed, which makes them ideal candidates to participate in 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 event 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.”

Working with LonMark, buildings participating in an OpenADR program can leverage their existing building automation systems and protocols through a 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.”

For more information about LonMark International, visit www.lonmark.org. For more information about the OpenADR Alliance, visit www.openadr.org.

Publication date: 04/30/2012