Demand Response / Smart Grid

About IPKeys Technologies

Energy Services

Today’s evolving regulatory policies and advances in Smart Grid technology present multifaceted challenges for energy providers and offer opportunities for realization of economic and environmental benefits for consumers, energy providers and government. IPKeys provides the standards based energy interoperations software, network design, communications engineering and enterprise security solutions that enable power providers and their customers to achieve the promise of a more reliable, safer and more economically beneficial Smart Grid.


IPKeys’ software, network communications engineering & enterprise security enable:
• Significant energy expenditure savings to commercial, industrial and residential consumers and utilities by using open standard control protocols
• Dramatic capital expenditure savings by reducing need for continued development of "peaker" power plants • Reduced frequency of potential disturbances and the enormous costs associated with power outages by allowing real‐time load control
• Economic and environmental benefits of alternative energy and renewable sources such as solar and wind power by using load control to compensate for intermittent power generation methods and permitting renewable sources to trade energy in various markets
• Consumers to act as smart purchasers of energy and make informed decisions about their energy usage and, potentially, reduce their energy costs

As early adapters, the company installed the first FDDI (fiber data distributed interconnect) networks in Southern California, the first ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) in San Diego, the first layer three switches in Mexico, and the first Cisco AVVID (architecture for voice, video, and integrated data)in the western United States. We recognized early on that products from different manufacturers did not necessarily work well together and that there was a large requirement for advanced engineering to ensure success of complex system integration.

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Key Program Areas of Support

  • Next Generation Demand Response

    Next Generation Demand Response

    Price Responsive Demand (“PRD”) is the next market evolution of Demand Response. PRD is a program that uses the predictable change of demand in response to price in conjunction with confirmation, feedback and emergency control. It satisfies the needs of both the energy provider seeking grid stability and the consumer looking for cost savings. IPKeys’ Energy Interop Server and System (EISS™) is a system that implements PRD. It uses current market prices in conjunction with two way communications to self regulate demand and maintain grid stability. This system provides a “physical hedge” that automatically reduces energy consumption during periods of high prices.

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    • Smart Grid

      Smart Grid

      It is the nation’s goal to transform its electric power delivery system (the energy grid) into a more intelligent, resilient, reliable, self-balancing, and interactive network that enables enhanced economic growth, environmental stewardship, operational efficiencies, energy security, and consumer choice.

      Smart Grid is defined as a broad range of solutions that optimize the energy value chain. Smart Grid will define a new era in the energy utility industry. The Smart Grid view creates an entirely new set of possibilities and challenges in energy delivery and control, while further complicating an already complex regulatory picture.

      Once implemented, it will create fundamental and far-reaching changes to the electric grid and our relationship with the energy we generate and consume. What was once an industry directed by regulation to deliver reliable, cheap and ubiquitous energy, is quickly becoming an industry that is expected, if not yet directed, to deliver all the above in a more efficient manner.

      IPKeys specializes in the secure, dynamic optimization of grid communications infrastructure. We offer consulting, design, security and project management services. With multiple deployments underway, IPKeys provides extensive knowledge and increased use of digital information and controls technology to improve reliability, security, and efficiency of the electric grid.

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      • Energy Interop Server & System™ - EISS™

        Energy Interop Server & System™ - EISS™

        A standards‐based web services enabled real time pricing, demand response, and transactive energy server that automates scalable two way communications from energy providers to commercial, industrial and residential consumers.

        What Does EISS Do?

        EISS™ allows energy providers to communicate in near real time with their customers in the following ways:
        • Send Pricing (Locational Marginal Price (LMP), hourly, or some other type).
        • Send Demand Response events and receive confirmation of curtailment.
        • Receive notification of Price Responsive Demand (PRD) curtailment actions.
        • Easily sort and automatically forward notifications from energy providers to your customers.
        • Monitor load behavior in near real time.
        • It can even allow you to trade energy in certain ISO markets.

        EISS Box

        Enables interoperability by translating and communicating from EI and OpenADR 2.0 protocols to provide control signals to a variety of devices (i.e. HVAC, solar and wind generation, ice storage, etc.); using a multiplicity of protocols and standards including BACnet and Modbus.

        Energy Interop Server and System (EISS™) is an open standards based system that uses the new OASIS Energy Interop™ standard. This standard was created in alignment with the federal Smart Grid efforts led by NIST to provide a single, open standard on which all energy related communications could be based. This standard is open and not specific to any single manufacturer. This attribute means that many different equipment manufacturers can adopt this standard and this can significantly reduce DA/CSP costs to add new customers.

        Learn More →

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        • EISS™ Data Sheet

          EISS™ Data Sheet

          DOWNLOAD DATA SHEET →

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          • Definitions

            Demand Response (DR)

            Demand Response (DR) is a mechanism to manage customer consumption of electricity in response to supply conditions. An example is having electricity customers reduce their consumption at critical times or in response to market prices. The difference is that demand response mechanisms respond to explicit requests to curtail energy usage, whereas dynamic demand devices passively shut off when stress in the grid is sensed. Demand response can involve actually curtailing power used or by starting on site generation. Demand Response allows electric utilities to accommodate short increases in peak demand without building expensive new power generation plants or imposing rolling brownouts or blackouts.
            Energy interoperation (EI) is a draft OASIS standard describing an information model and a web services communication model to enable collaborative and transactive use of energy, service definitions consistent with the OASIS SOA Reference Model, and XML vocabularies for the interoperable and standard exchange of: • Communication of market participation information, such as bids
            • DR and Reliability signals
            • Dynamic price signals
            • Emergency signals
            • Load predictability and generation information

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            Locational Marginal Response (LMP)

            Locational Marginal Price is a market-pricing approach used to manage the efficient use of the electrical transmission system when congestion occurs on the bulk power grid. Marginal pricing is the idea that the market price of any commodity should be the cost of bringing the last unit of that commodity – the one that balances supply and demand – to market. In electricity, LMP recognizes that this marginal price may vary at different times and locations based on transmission congestion. With LMP, market participants know the price of hundreds of locations on the system. These prices, in turn, reveal the value of locating new generation, upgrading transmission, or reducing electricity consumption—elements needed in a well-functioning market to alleviate constraints, increase competition and improve the system’s ability to meet power demand.

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            OpenADR

            Open ADR is an open and standardized way for electricity providers, energy consumers and system operators to communicate DR signals with each other and with their customers using a common language and a common platform over any existing IP‐based communications network. OpenADR signals interact with building and industrial control systems that are pre‐programmed to take action based on a DR signal, enabling a demand response event to be fully automated, without manual intervention.

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            OASIS

            Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards is a not-for-profit consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of open standards for the global information society.

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            Price Responsive Demand (PRD)

            (PRD) is the next market evolution of Demand Response. PRD is a program that uses the predictable change of demand in response to price in conjunction with confirmation, feedback and emergency control. It satisfies the needs of both the energy provider seeking grid stability and the consumer looking for cost savings. PRD is the predictable change (a reduction when prices rise, or an increase when prices fall) in electricity consumption (also known as demand) in response to changing wholesale electricity prices.

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