The Association for Demand Response & Smart Grid (ADS) is a nonprofit organization that is committed to establishing a demand response "community" of policymakers, utilities, system operators, technology companies, consumers and other stakeholders.

Recently, ADS announced the addition of four members – Opower, the American Public Power Association (APPA), Conservation Services Group (CSG) and Energate.

Opower is a provider of customer engagement and energy management software to the utility industry that helps drive energy efficiency gains on a large scale. The company has partnered with more than 60 utilities, including eight of the 10 largest in the U.S. The Opower platform enables utilities with Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) to convert hourly data into measurable energy savings.

Established as a nonprofit, non-partisan organization in 1940, the American Public Power Association (APPA) serves more than 2,000 community-owned electric utilities in the country serving more than 46 million Americans. APPA strives to provide utilities and municipalities with the resources and tools to make educated decisions about any technological investment, especially smart grid technologies.

The Conservation Services Group (CSG) promotes residential energy efficiency programs in North America, and is involved in the development of renewable energy resources to protect the environment and make buildings safer and environment friendly.

Additionally, Energate provides Consumer Connected Demand Response (CCDR) solutions to address the residential energy demand and helps residents effectively manage their energy use. The solutions offered by Energate include software, wireless communications, gateways, smart thermostats, switches and consumer energy displays.

"We are pleased to have these new members be a part of ADS," said Dan Delurey, executive director of ADS, in a statement. "We look forward to their contributions as ADS works to foster the growth of the demand response and smart grid community. Their membership will broaden and diversify our organization.”

“It will also help us have a better exchange of ideas and information on DR in general and how it is developed and implemented in different ways in different regions of the country,” Delurey added. “These new members will add expertise and experience that will help in carrying out our work in 2012 to implement the National Action Plan on DR and Smart Grid."

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