Smart home demand response between agents

Demand response asks homes to use less power, or use it at a different time, when the grid is stressed or prices spike. The signalling side is already machine-to-machine: a utility or aggregator server sends events, and thermostats, water heaters and EV chargers respond. What still runs on blunt defaults is the household’s side of the bargain. An agent-to-agent version gives the home an agent that can answer a program’s agent with a counter-offer shaped by the people who live there: this much load, for this long, but not the car.

This page describes utility programs generically. Program rules, incentives and eligibility differ by utility, state and province.

How it works today

A customer enrolls in a utility or aggregator program, usually through a device maker’s app. During an event, the program’s server signals the device maker’s cloud or the device itself. The thermostat pre-cools or backs off, the customer gets a notification and can opt out, and the utility later pays an incentive based on measured performance.

The signalling standards:

Standard	Role	Notes
OpenADR 3.0	Utility or aggregator (VTN) to customer systems (VEN)	Launched November 2023. A REST API with JSON, defined by an OpenAPI spec. Objects include programs, events, reports and subscriptions; clients authenticate with OAuth 2.0 client credentials. Adds dynamic pricing, greenhouse-gas signals and capacity management such as dynamic operating envelopes. Complements OpenADR 2.0 rather than replacing it
IEEE 2030.5-2023	Smart Energy Profile	RESTful protocol covering demand response, load control, time-of-use pricing, distributed energy resources and EVs. California’s Rule 21 selected it as the default communications protocol for distributed energy resources
ANSI/CTA-2045-B	Appliance port	A standard socket and protocol appliance makers can build in for utility energy management
Matter	In-home devices	1.3 (May 2024) added energy measurement, the Device Energy Management cluster and an EVSE device type. 1.4 (November 2024) added solar, battery, heat pump and water heater types. 1.5 (November 2025) added tariff data and grid connection limits. 1.6 (June 2026) lets a thermostat protect a user’s demand-response commitment from another ecosystem’s automation

In May 2026 the Connectivity Standards Alliance and the OpenADR Alliance agreed to work together: Matter carries messages between appliances and a home energy gateway, and OpenADR 3 carries them between that gateway and utilities or grid operators.

At the wholesale level, FERC Order No. 2222 (September 2020) lets aggregators of distributed energy resources, including home devices, take part in regional US wholesale markets, with a minimum aggregation size of no more than 100 kW. Customers can share their usage data with third parties through Green Button Connect My Data, built on the NAESB REQ.21 ESPI standard.

The gap: device responses follow the device maker’s defaults or a single comfort setting. A household with an EV that must be charged by 6 a.m., a person working from home, and a heat pump has no way to offer a partial response or to explain why it opted out.

The agent-to-agent version

Illustrative. A utility’s program agent sends an event notice for a summer afternoon. The home’s energy agent, which runs on the household’s gateway and knows its devices through Matter, answers with a partial commitment:

{
  "id": "task-dr-0719-4471",
  "contextId": "ctx-dr-summer-2027",
  "status": {
    "state": "TASK_STATE_COMPLETED",
    "message": {
      "messageId": "msg-dr-0719-2",
      "taskId": "task-dr-0719-4471",
      "contextId": "ctx-dr-summer-2027",
      "role": "ROLE_AGENT",
      "parts": [
        { "text": "Accepting 1.8 kW of reduction from 16:00 to 19:00. EV charging is excluded because the vehicle must be charged by 06:00." },
        {
          "data": {
            "eventId": "evt-2027-07-19-peak",
            "committedReductionKw": 1.8,
            "window": { "start": "2027-07-19T16:00:00-04:00", "end": "2027-07-19T19:00:00-04:00" },
            "devices": ["heat-pump", "water-heater"],
            "excluded": ["ev-charger"],
            "precoolFrom": "2027-07-19T14:30:00-04:00"
          },
          "mediaType": "application/json"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Then:

1. The program agent accepts the partial commitment or offers a higher incentive for more.
2. The home agent applies the plan through Matter. With Matter 1.6 thermostat suggestions, other ecosystems’ automations cannot quietly override the event.
3. After the event, the home agent reports what it delivered. The program agent compares it with the utility’s meter data and confirms the incentive.
4. If the numbers disagree, both sides have the commitment, the report and the meter data to compare.

OpenADR 3 still carries the event itself. The agent exchange adds the negotiation, the household’s reasons and the settlement conversation.

What has to be true

Identity. The home agent must know the program agent speaks for the real utility or a licensed aggregator, since a fake event could be used to switch off heating. The program agent must know which account, meter and devices the home agent represents. Device identity can build on Matter’s device attestation certificates, which show a device is genuine and certified.

Authority. Enrollment gives the program a standing permission, and the household sets its limits: temperature bounds, excluded devices, maximum events per month, and a right to override at any time. Tenants and landlords may disagree over who can enroll a building’s heat pump. The home agent should never exceed the household’s limits to earn an incentive.

Record. Incentives depend on a baseline and on measured reduction, so both sides need the commitment, the delivered performance and the meter data. Interval data reveals when people are home, so the record should hold only what settlement needs.

Standards involved: OpenADR 3.0, IEEE 2030.5, CTA-2045, Matter 1.3 to 1.6, Green Button ESPI, FERC Order No. 2222 for wholesale participation, and A2A for the negotiation. Privacy and consumer rules for energy data differ by jurisdiction, including between US states and Canadian provinces.

Where Emissar fits

• Verify (in development) checks that a program agent really represents the utility or aggregator it names.
• Mandate (spec in progress) is a proposal for the household’s limits as a scoped, revocable credential the program can check.
• Ledger (spec in progress) keeps signed commitments and performance reports for incentive disputes.
• Settle (planned) could pay incentives when a program pays per event.

The event signal itself belongs to OpenADR; nothing here replaces it.

Open questions

• Is a negotiation layer worth adding, or will programs keep fixed incentives and simple opt-outs?
• When a thermostat maker’s cloud, an EV maker and an aggregator all claim the same device, which agent speaks for the household?
• How much interval data should a program agent receive, and for how long?
• Wholesale participation under Order 2222 is being implemented market by market. Will home agents deal with aggregators, utilities, or both?
• Who is liable if a home agent over-commits and the household loses heat or cooling?