by Rebecca Walker — March 23, 2011—The Demand Response Coordinating Committee (DRCC) announced that it is changing its membership structure in accordance with the services it will now provide as a professional membership society. Reflecting this new focus, the DRCC has changed its name to the Association for Demand Response & Smart Grid (ADS).
Tim Roughan, Director of Product Management for National Grid and Chairman of DRCC/ADS, said the change made sense at this point in time. “Over the past 10 years, there has been tremendous growth in the number of individuals that refer to themselves as demand response and smart grid professionals, yet there has been no organization for these people to join as individuals,” he said.
The DRCC is a 501 c (3) nonprofit organization whose mission has been to increase the knowledge base in the U.S. on demand response and to facilitate the exchange of information and expertise among demand response practitioners and policy makers. It later adopted smart grid as part of its charter as it recognized early that demand response and smart grid were necessarily intertwined, and that demand response was one of the primary ways that the smart grid would be “put into action.” Since the DRCC formed in 2004, it has offered only corporate and organizational memberships.
As of the week of March 14, 2011, the DRCC will be known as the Association for Demand Response & Smart Grid (ADS). Technology companies, utilities, nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, and other entities will be welcome to join as group members, but ADS will also be a membership association for demand response and smart grid professionals.
To become a member or learn more about ADS, see the Web site.
