Many of our members and partners will have seen this week that the Alliance announced significant growth in our membership and worldwide adoption of the OpenADR standard.

As the industry continues to evolve and adapt to the growing number of DER – from EV managed charging networks and energy storage to grid-interactive technologies and the integration of renewables – we’ve seen around 60 organizations join us in the last year. This is around one new company a week, unprecedented since the Alliance was formed 15 years ago – and is an acknowledgement of the work of our growing ecosystem.

The spotlight is firmly on the integration of electric vehicles into the power grid with the recent news that ChargeScape, a consortium of some of the biggest names in automotive manufacturing has appointed its first CEO and CTO.

Spearheaded by Alliance Board member, Ford Motor Company, along with BMW Manufacturing Co., Honda and Nissan Motor Corporation, the joint venture will focus on the integration of electric vehicles (EVs) into the power grid in the US.

This week is particularly exciting one for us at the OpenADR Alliance. As we gather at Enlit Europe (November 28-30th) with industry leaders and several of our members, all part of the growing community of companies looking to solve the most important energy transition issues, we are delighted to announce the new version of the OpenADR communications standard.

OpenADR 3.0 is an important milestone for us as the industry body responsible for driving the development, adoption, and compliance of OpenADR. It’s also a significant step in the development of communications standard for utilities, operators, and aggregators, as they look to manage the growing range of distributed energy resources.

Putting renewables and energy storage at the heart of Enlit Europe 2023

Recent estimates by the European Environment Agency (EEA) indicate that we are consuming more of our energy from renewable sources like solar power. Last year in Europe, nearly a quarter (22.5%) was generated by renewables. While this is on the rise, the EEA warns that to meet the new target of 42.5% for 2030 it will “require a deep transformation of the European energy system”.