Facilities Enabled for Automated Demand Response to Increase to 170,000 Sites Worldwide by 2018

Demand response (DR) is becoming an increasingly important strategy for utilities to make sure that enough electricity is available on the grid to meet demand in order to avoid power outages. A critical development in this strategy is automated demand response (ADR) technology. This technology automates the notification process - from the utility or grid operator notifying DR program participants to reduce or shift their energy usage to actually implementing the predefined adjustments via control systems on their premises. According to a new report from Pike Research, ADR is gaining increasing attention in the market, especially with the use of open standards such as the OpenADR specification.

The cleantech market intelligence firm forecasts that nearly 170,000 facilities around the world will be ADR-enabled by 2018, up from approximately 20,000 sites at the end of 2011. Pike Research anticipates that total annual ADR spending will exceed $1.7 billion by 2018, compared to just $294 million in 2011.

"Thanks to ADR, it is now possible for demand response to evolve to the next level by reaching a broader end-user market with increased access to sophisticated and advanced types of program options, such as ancillary and regulation services," says senior analyst Marianne Hedin. "Although ADR has so far primarily been a U.S. phenomenon, it has recently been introduced to other countries, such as Canada, the United Kingdom, China, Hong Kong, and New Zealand. Eventually, we believe that many countries will leapfrog directly to ADR rather than spending years relying on a traditional and manual approach to DR."

Hedin adds that ADR will be utilized not only in smart buildings, but also to facilitate improved energy management in "semi-smart" and "dumb" buildings around the world. Pike Research's analysis indicates that the overwhelming majority of ADR cost is for retrofitting "dumb" buildings that lack the technology to support ADR programs.

Pike Research's report, "Automated Demand Response", examines the market opportunity for ADR technologies and services with a particular focus on the OpenADR specification. The study analyzes market drivers and technology issues associated with ADR adoption, in addition to a detailed review of deployment scenarios in different types of buildings. Key industry players are profiled in depth and global market forecasts, segmented by world region, are provided through 2018. An Executive Summary of the report is available for free download on the firm's website.

Source: Sustainable

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