Meet the Board Blog Series: Mary Ann Piette, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The OpenADR Alliance is pleased to introduce Mary Ann Piette, Associate Laboratory Director for Energy Technologies at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and lead of the California Load Flexibility Research and Deployment Hub (CalFlexHub).

In her role, Mary Ann manages the development of affordable and secure energy systems. Over the last five years, CalFlexHub has demonstrated advanced load-flexible technologies and developed key elements for OpenADR 3. She has served on our Board since the Alliance's inception, and her industry expertise is unparalleled.

Below Mary Ann addresses questions regarding her role in the industry and shares insights on the future vision for the OpenADR Alliance.

Can you please provide your professional background and an overview of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (LBNL's) role in the energy sector?

As Associate Laboratory Director of LBNL’s Energy Technologies Area, I manage a team of researchers focused on innovation to provide affordable, reliable, secure and abundant energy systems for American prosperity. As a researcher, I also lead the California Load Flexibility Research and Deployment Hub (CalFlexHub), where for the past five years, we have been demonstrating the advanced load-flexible technologies that OpenADR is designed to support. The key elements of OpenADR 3, released in 2023, were developed within CalFlexHub.

What is your motivation for serving as a board member of the OpenADR Alliance?

With colleagues at LBNL and several industry partners, I developed the original OpenADR 1.0 specification, which we released in April 2009. At the time, we knew that for demand response to realize its full potential as a strategy for grid affordability and reliability, we needed a common language between demands-side technologies and the electric system needed. Today it remains my mission to shepherd and grow OpenADR and complementary technologies that comprise a modern, efficient, and robust electric grid integrated and interacting with flexible electric demand side technologies.

What do you consider to be the OpenADR Alliance's greatest accomplishments?

The process of developing OpenADR began in 2002 as a response to the California electricity crisis, but it addressed a need that went far beyond that moment in that state. OpenADR’s expansion globally, including its approval in 2019 as an International Electrotechnical Commission standard (IEC 62746-10-1), is a testament to its broad relevance and I am proud of how broadly it has been adopted.

Can you provide an overview of LBNL's current use cases and implementation of the OpenADR standard?

OpenADR supports a wide variety of signals and utility program types to automate demand response. CalFlexHub has evaluated how time-varying electricity pricing, like hourly prices, can be used to incentivize shifting or reducing electric use in buildings during high price times of the day, therefore reducing utility bills. This included implementing OpenADR with EVs, and residential and commercial buildings. LBNL is starting new research with large industrial electricity customers, including data centers, to explore how OpenADR can improve grid reliability and affordability of energy systems.

What is your vision for the future of the standard and the Alliance?

As demand response transitions from traditional event-based strategies to continuous demand flexibility, OpenADR is an essential link. The use of open communication technologies enables greater interoperability, which allow energy customers to have a broader set of choices for their energy systems. This technology also enables utilities and grid operators to provide an open competitive marketplace for integration with demand-side systems. I look forward to supporting the Alliance and I am excited to see how the open standard evolves to meet the needs of modernizing grids across our extensive user base.