Tendril and Utility Integration Solutions Inc. have forged a strategic partnership to integrate the two companies’ product and service capabilities for energy management and demand response. The result is a full end-to-end demand response system that is open, standards-based and provides a new level of utility and customer functionality and interoperability.

The partnership agreement will integrate UISOL’s utility-focused enterprise Demand Response Management System (DRMS) with the Tendril platform, which is consumer-focused and leverages an ecosystem of energy management partners.

“Together with the Tendril platform, our DRBizNet Demand Response Management System can now provide economic and grid reliability relief across a vast ecosystem of energy management devices that exist today and in the near future. This strategic integration demonstrates the power and flexibility of open standards,” said UISOL CEO Ali Vojdani.

According to the National Institutes of Science and Technology, standards and interoperability (the ability of diverse systems and their components to work together) are critical to achieving a reliable and robust smart grid. The government agency has been working with industry, government, and consumer stakeholders to expedite these standards. Both companies embraced open, standards-based systems for their specific products early on. DRBizNet and the Tendril platform are based on OpenADR, one of the first standards adopted and ratified by the NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability. In addition, Tendril uses the ZigBee Smart Energy Profile to provide additional open standards to support Home Area Networks and consumer-based energy management devices.

Using the Tendril platform within the home, customers can monitor and manage their energy usage through products like in-home displays, smart thermostats and smart outlets that track energy costs and consumption by appliance, electronic or household device. The platform also extends to new devices such smart appliances, residential electric vehicle chargers, and distributed energy resources such as renewables and storage. Meanwhile, UISOL’s DRBizNet Demand Response Management System allows utilities to fully automate all demand response management business and operational processes with greater efficiency and transparency; from planning, registration, event dispatch, tracking, verification, documentation, and settlement. When integrated together, the systems enable demand response across a larger and more diverse load base, with greater customer participation and buy-in.