Electric vehicle integration standards boost smart grid efficiency

"Our experience has shown that charging station manufacturers are still shying away from the standard because the implementation is too complex," Dr. Erik Oswald from Fraunhofer ESK in Munich told the news source. "For this reason, we developed a reference installation that significantly streamlines the implementation."

Developing new standards and strategies for electric vehicle integration will help utilities and consumers improve their environmentally-friendly efforts, but utilities have to also look at their own backend to ensure it is able to keep up with the needs of these improvements. From deploying higher quality terminal servers to investing in the serial to Ethernet converters necessary to ensure latency free connectivity, utility providers will have to boost their own infrastructure in addition to supporting the new smart vehicle to grid interface projects.

To this end, the researchers from Fraunhofer ESK developed two improved standards for smart grid communications - ISO/IEC 15118 and IEC 61850. These improvements focus on the communication between the grid and vehicle, as well as overall communications across all smart grid operations, respectively. These efforts will boost energy management system efficiency and enhance testing and maintenance as well.

Perle offers a range of cost effective serial-to-Ethernet converters to help meet NERC-CIP compliance for the protection of critical cyberassets in substations. The IOLAN SDS HV/LDC Terminal Server is designed to meet harsh environments associated with Power Substations with attributes such as support for substation AC and DC voltage ranges, extended operating temperatures and meeting emission, immunity and safety approvals associated with substation IT equipment.