21 Oct 2025
OpenADR Alliance Reports Unprecedented Growth and Adoption as Energy Providers Tackle Growing Pool of Distributed Energy Resources
- Virtual power plant capability sees innovative startups join utilities and control manufacturers - Global recognition as policymakers specify open standards for energy flexibility
The OpenADR Alliance announced a significant uplift in worldwide membership driven by changes to energy management systems and the growing number of distributed energy resources (DER), including EV managed charging networks, energy storage, and the integration of renewables.
Almost 60 organizations have joined in the last year, at a rate of one new member a week, an unprecedented number since the Alliance was formed 15 years ago to foster the development, adoption and compliance of the OpenADR communication standard. Geographically, Asia is driving this membership growth with more than a third of new joiners from Japan, China and Korea, as well as organizations from across Europe and North America.
Global recognition of the Alliance is also growing as more governments and policymakers specify open standards as part of energy demand flexibility. Several European countries have chosen OpenADR as their demand side flexibility technology standard, while in the UK, the Energy Networks Association (ENA) recently specified OpenADR. Japan has also specified additional OpenADR usage requirements, and in the U.S., California is working on OpenADR 3 for dynamic pricing communications.
Innovation in VPPs and grid-interactive buildings drive growth
Traditionally made up of utilities and control manufacturers, the OpenADR ecosystem has continued to diversify as the market evolves. New members are developing energy efficient heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) products, battery storage systems, EV charging platforms, as well as a growing number of innovative startups designing advanced technologies for grid-interactive buildings, and building energy management systems (BEMS).
With the virtual power plant (VPP) market predicted to grow from $5.6 billion in 2025 to $39.5 billion by 2035, the Alliance is also benefitting from the growing capability of VPPs as grid resources. While first-generation implementations for OpenADR in VPPs was through rooftop solar and storage, the Alliance is seeing more cross-DER integration as companies develop new technologies for solar system integration and AI-based predictive load balancing.
Rolf Bienert, Managing & Technical Director, OpenADR Alliance, comments: "Our membership has grown consistently in response to industry developments and innovations. But this is happening on a whole new scale as the utility sector evolves to manage a greater number of distributed energy resources, whether that's EVs, energy storage, renewables or demand response capabilities. We've seen a lot of interest in the last 12 to 18 months with an influx of companies looking to tackle different aspects of energy management and optimization."
OpenADR Alliance milestones:
Among new members who joined this year are Ennowell (state-of-the-art smart building management solutions); Edo (innovative energy and demand optimization solutions); Shadow Power (energy infrastructure technology); LOXONE (intelligent building automation); and DynaChrge Inc. (advanced EV charging solutions).
Leading U.S. water heating technology manufacturers, A. O. Smith and Bradford White, also joined the Alliance, together with American Standard Water Heaters, Rheem Manufacturing Brands - Commercial, LG Electronics, Rinnai America Corporation, and ECO2 Systems.
Since OpenADR 3 was launched in 2023, several OpenADR 3-certified products have been announced, including from E.ON Energy Networks, EVoke Systems, Universal Devices, and more recently, mwConnect. In total, 335 OpenADR-certified products are now available, with more than 5,000 companies downloading the OpenADR specification.
An important milestone was reached in August 2025 when the Alliance published the specification version 3.1.0, which includes a number of small adjustments requested by the industry and support of MQTT (a standard for IoT messaging) for subscription models. The latter makes OpenADR one of the few, if not the only, standard in the space that can support this model.
A new open specification was announced this year allowing OpenADR and Matter to work together, enabling mass-market, consumer-friendly grid demand response solutions. Service providers and smart appliance manufacturers can unlock energy flexibility in home appliances, EV chargers, water heaters, solar, and battery storage.
EcoPort certification (the brand name for CTA-2045) continues to be adopted by manufacturers and regulators. In the U.S., several states now require all new electric storage water heaters sold to include a CTA-2045 communications standard.
In Europe, the OpenADR Alliance is further strengthening ties with other standards bodies and government/policy organizations. These include the UK's Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), which has written OpenADR into two BSI standards, ENA, and National Energy System Operator (NESO) in the UK, EEBUS in Germany, and Smart Energy Europe (smartEn) among others.
