On July 18, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) marked the official opening of the Electric Vehicle-Smart Grid Interoperability Center, located at Illinois's Argonne National Laboratory, with a day of presentations and meetings highlighting ongoing work to ensure the effectiveness and compatibility of electric vehicles (EVs), charging systems, and the U.S. electric grid of the future. The opening of the center is part of an ongoing effort to ensure compatibility between electric vehicles and the Smart Grid, and to bridge existing gaps between U.S. and European standardization approaches in this area.
The new center - which is expected to draw on the Argonne National Laboratory's work on EVs and battery technology - will focus on creating requirements, test procedures, communication protocols, standards, and other documents related to EVs, EV supply equipment, and related connectivity technologies, while also pinpointing relevant private-sector standards and technology gaps. The center is expected to share test procedures and standards with two under-development European Commission Joint Research Centre facilities in Italy and the Netherlands, which are scheduled to open in 2014.
Participants at the July 18 event included representatives of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), U.S. and European government agencies and bodies, standards developing organizations (SDOs), and auto companies, along with other stakeholders. Attendees viewed vehicle-to-grid charging demonstrations, discussed issues related to EV batteries and their compatibility with Smart Grid technology, and listened to keynote speeches on e-mobility policy and transatlantic cooperation from Phyllis Yoshida, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of energy, and Dominique Ristori, director-general of the European Commission Joint Research Centre.
Jim McCabe, ANSI senior director for standards facilitation, took part in a panel on standards organization perspectives related to EV-Smart Grid issues, along with Peter Byk of ANSI member and accredited standards developer SAE International and Ken Boyce of ANSI audited designator Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL). Mr. McCabe discussed the ANSI Electric Vehicles Standards Panel (EVSP), which recently released its Standardization Roadmap for Electric Vehicles - Version 2.0 (May 2013), as well as ongoing efforts to promote U.S.-EU transatlantic standards harmonization and alignment of EV technical requirements. In addition, Mr. McCabe highlighted standards needs related to coupler safety and interoperability, EV charging infrastructure safety, communications, and wireless charging, among other aspects of the roll-out of EVs and charging stations.
The July 18 event followed important collaborative discussions held in Brussels in November 2012 during the Transatlantic eMobility Standardization Roundtable, organized by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN), the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC), and ANSI [see previous story]. During the roundtable, participants pushed for increased alignment and harmonization of technical standards and regulations related to EVs between the U.S. and EU, and to support the work of the U.S. Electric Vehicle-Smart Grid Interoperability Center and the two planned European Commission Joint Research Centre facilities, among other conclusions.
For more information about the U.S. Electric Vehicle-Smart Grid Interoperability Center and the two European Commission Joint Research Centre facilities, click here.
To learn more about the Argonne National Laboratory, visit its official website here.