We kicked off the month in San Diego with a busy week that included two insightful industry events. First event was hosted by PLMA (The Flexible Load Management Community) and the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC). This new experience was designed for utility professionals interested in load flexibility, distributed energy resources (DERs), and residential customer engagement.

As customer-sited DERs and load flexibility programs become essential for delivering reliable and affordable electricity, PLMA and SECC successfully merged two existing DTECH events—PLMA’s Symposium on DER Grid Services and SECC’s Consumer Symposium—into a single program. This combined initiative explores two key angles of the energy transition: grid operations and customer engagement. Utility speakers were bullish on growth in distributed energy resource integration, and noted Virtual Power Plant resources can be added more quickly than traditional natural gas power plants to meet new demand. (Speakers also suggested the VPP term should really be called distributed power plants – there’s nothing “virtual” about them.) 

The OpenADR Alliance is pleased to announce the availability of its 2025 Annual Report. This past year was marked by unprecedented growth and adoption as energy providers continue to manage the increasing pool of distributed energy resources (DER).

Key achievements highlighted in the report include a significant global increase in membership, driven by advancements in energy management systems and the integration of EV charging networks, energy storage, and renewables. In the last year alone, nearly 60 organizations joined the Alliance—a rate of one new member per week—representing the highest growth in our 15-year history. This expansion is particularly strong in Asia, with over a third of new members originating from Japan, China, and Korea, alongside significant growth across Europe and North America.

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.

With its stunning architecture, enviable dining scene, and home to the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao will add a new string to its bow this year when it plays host to Enlit Europe 2025.

The fact that Bilbao has transformed from a gritty industrial port into one of the most vibrant and futuristic cities in Spain is perhaps a fitting tribute to the energy sector, which itself is transforming from old to new.

The OpenADR Alliance last year launched a new version of its OpenADR communications standard. OpenADR 3 was designed to support utilities, operators, aggregators, and customers as they try to manage the growing range of distributed energy resources (DER) including renewables, energy storage, electric vehicle (EV) batteries and charging infrastructure, as well as demand response resources like commercial buildings or homes.

As an open standard, OpenADR provides highly secure, fast, and reliable two-way information exchange for utility applications with simple communications needs like dynamic price and event signals, allowing customers to modify their usage to save money and reduce their carbon footprint. More complex scenarios such as managing local grid constraints are also supported.