by Rebecca Walker — May 27, 2011—REGEN Energy has announced the availability of its OpenADR (Open Automated Demand Response) solution for summer 2011. This solution breaks down technology barriers so that every commercial and industrial facility can benefit from OpenADR programs and incentives, says the company.
REGEN’s simple wireless EnviroGrid demand management technology enables building owners to participate in OpenADR, whether directly with a utility or through a load aggregator, at a fraction of the cost and complexity compared to an Energy Management System (EMS), the company says. Most facilities can be installed and commissioned within one day by any HVAC technician or electrician, making EnviroGrid one of the fastest deployment solutions available today. EnviroGrid requires no intervention on the part of the customer, and qualifies for utility incentives that trim financial payback into months, not years.
The OpenADR standard, already in use by many of California’s largest utilities, allows customers to receive Automatic Demand Response signals to control building equipment such as air-conditioning and lighting, which can represent over 50 percent of total building electrical load. Customers are eligible for tremendous utility incentives if they participate via OpenADR.
Until now, the only way that commercial and industrial customers could convert those OpenADR signals into action was if they installed and customized an EMS. This presented an obstacle for the majority of building operators, given the cost and complexity involved in installing and managing an EMS—let alone the costs to customize load limiting strategies for each building. Department of Energy surveys indicate that 75% of buildings do not have an EMS, restricting adoption of OpenADR to a small segment of the market.
EnviroGrid employs REGEN’s patented wireless swarm logic controllers to distribute a Demand Response event’s curtailment across loads and across time as smoothly as possible, providing substantially better occupant comfort compared to conventional temperature setback or load limiting techniques. EnviroGrid also provides consumption reduction and peak demand reduction benefits well beyond DR events, generating energy efficiency savings for customers year-round.
For more information, see the Web site.
