Demand Response World Forum Oct. 13-15 Looks at DR's Role in Grid Modernization

Sept. 30, 2014
Energy professionals from around the world will gather for the Demand Response World Forum 2014 in Costa Mesa, California, October 13-15. The international event will explore the latest automated demand response (ADR) technologies and strategies for meeting the changing energy landscape of the 21st Century.

Energy professionals from around the world will gather for the Demand Response World Forum 2014 in Costa Mesa, California, October 13-15 .  The international event will explore the latest automated demand response (ADR) technologies and strategies for meeting the changing energy landscape of the 21st Century.

Over 40 speakers will join technology innovators and business executives to examine the evolving role of ADR in enabling an integrated and flexible network that is responsive to a wide range of energy resources, marketplace entities, and customer energy demand and generation.

“Demand response is one resource within the distributed energy technology family that utilities are actively pursuing with gird modernization and advancement, and new fleet scale supply development,” says C. Scott Wilson, principal in the Engineering Management Consulting Practice – Energy and Utilities at Exponent, and conference chair. “The World Forum is about technology, but more specifically how to use DR and this new resource family to further reduce system risk and extract additional benefits across the energy market’s entire value chain.”

Keynoting the event will be Bob Foster, chairman of the Board of Governors, California ISO; Paul Lau, assistant general manager, Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD); and  Ahmad Faruqui, principal at The Brattle Group.

Organized by the Smart Grid Observer with the support of the OpenADR Alliance, the conference will focus on the recent Order 745 decision, new EPA guidelines and their implications for ADR.  Other topics include emerging trends in residential DR, the future of active demand management, strategies for improving DR performance, and the experiences of leading utilities to date in implementing auto-DR programs.

“This will be a unique opportunity to network with leaders who are shaping the next-generation of demand response,” says Daniel Coran, editor of the Smart Grid Observer and program manager for the World Forum.  “We will also be looking at leading-edge topics such as virtual power plants and how DR plays a central role in integrating distributed energy resources.”

The Forum also features a one-day, pre-conference Workshop on “Implementing Automated Demand Response Programs” for utilities, DR designers, and program implementers who are planning to use OpenADR 2.0.  Led by QualityLogic, the focus of the workshop is on how best to use OpenADR-based systems for automating DR.

“OpenADR 2.0 brings reliability, predictability and lower costs to demand-response solutions for commercial, industrial and residential applications,” said James Mater, QualityLogic co-founder and Smart Grid Business general manager. “We’ve been helping companies get started with this important Smart Grid standard through training for several years now, and we’re pleased to have been invited to bring this class to the Demand Response World Forum.”

Among the 40+ companies presenting at the World Forum are: PJM, Duke Energy, Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric, California PUC, Cal ISO, Navigant Research, EPRI, ELCON, Siemens, Schneider Electric, Skipping Stone, EnerNOC, Honeywell, and many others.

For full information and to register, visit www.drworldforum.com

About the Author

Kevin Normandeau | Publisher

Kevin is a veteran of the publishing industry having worked for brands like PC World, AOL, Network World, Data Center Knowledge and other business to business sites. He focuses on industry trends in the energy efficiency industry.