#demand-response

#demand-response

OpenADR and Matter are teaming up to make it easier for smart home appliances to talk to the energy grid. This is a big deal, as Matter is the most popular smart home connectivity standard and OpenADR is a connectivity standard used by the actual energy grid. In other words, this should allow smart home devices to automatically communicate with the grid without any effort on your part.

Smart energy management just took a step closer to becoming simpler. This week, the organizations behind Matter, the smart-home interoperability standard, and the OpenADR protocol, which sends signals between the grid and the home, announced an agreement to work together. This should make it easier for connected appliances to participate in demand response programs (DR) and, hopefully, save you money.

Estimates vary widely, but the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab anticipates that the share of electricity production in the U.S. used by data centers could spike from 4.4% in 2023 to between 6.7% and 12% by 2028. PJM expects a peak load growth of 32 gigawatts by 2030 - enough power to supply 30 million new homes, but nearly all going to new data centers.

Grid-interactive buildings represent the next evolution in sustainable real estate. These buildings communicate dynamically with the electricity grid, adjusting energy consumption and generation to optimise efficiency, cost, and environmental impact. How grid-interactive buildings operate Using advanced sensors, building management systems, and AI-driven controls, grid-interactive buildings monitor both internal energy demand and grid conditions. They can shift consumption to off-peak periods, store excess renewable energy in batteries, or feed energy back to the grid when appropriate.

Google plans to pause non-essential AI workloads to protect power grids, maintaining operations during peak energy demand by shifting tasks to available power sources.