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Plaid Documentation

Plaid is a software package that implements an OpenADR 2.0b Virtual End Node (VEN), which is defined and maintained by the OpenADR Alliance. OpenADR (Open Automated Demand Response) is an open protocol defined for demand response and load shifting on the utility grid. For more about OpenADR and its applications, please learn more at the alliance website.

Plaid is used by companies that build or control energy consuming IoT devices. It helps them implement OpenADR and participate in load shifting programs. For many teams, Plaid implementation takes just a couple of weeks to achieve full OpenADR certification, which ultimately lists their products on the Certified Product Database as though they had built it from scratch.

Plaid is available for both linux and windows. Our customers get the full source code, make necessary updates and customizations so it will integrate into their existing systems, and then package and host as many versions of it as they need. Customers typically host Plaid in their existing cloud software platform, although on-device implementations are also possible.

This documentation has a number of useful resources learning about and implementing Plaid. For any questions, please reach out to support@gridfabric.io.

Docs description

This documentation website is for Plaid v1. For updated docs, see plaid-docs.gridfabric.io

  • OpenADR Conceptual Overview: provides a basic understanding of OpenADR and how Plaid implements it for customers. A good place to start.
  • Plaid Conceptual Overview: A technical overview of how Plaid works and how customers implement it, useful to review before diving into the full user guide.
  • QuickStart: provides the most common implementation to get an instance of Plaid running end to end
  • User Guide: Full reference for Plaid functionality and installation
  • Build Guides: Reference for build and execution of Plaid on Linux and Windows
  • Frequently Asked Questions

Note on Naming - NOVA vs Plaid

This software has been built and run for a number of years by Nebland Software as NOVA. Recently the team behind Nebland re-branded as GridFabric, and re-named NOVA to Plaid. Therefore, throughout these docs you may see references and filenames that refer to NOVA. To avoid confusion, please remember that NOVA and Plaid refer to the same product and are interchangeable.