COTEVOS Consolidates Effort in Grid Integration of Electric Vehicles

Kassel, Germany, April 7, 2016 (Newswire.com) - Electric vehicles (EV) emerge as a great challenge to the grid infrastructure but also as a great opportunity under the smart grid umbrella. The process of EV integration can boost new business opportunities, and fast EV deployment will contribute to lower prices and extended services for final EV users.  In order to promote this widespread deployment of EV, all EV-related systems and stakeholders need to be assessed from different perspectives on the basis of performance and interoperability criteria.

The COTEVOS (“Concepts, Capacities and Methods for Testing EV Systems and their Interoperability within the Smart Grids”) consortium, led by TECNALIA and consisting of 11 partners and three external parties, developed optimal structures and capacities to test the conformance, interoperability and performance of different systems for the smart charging of EV in the smart grid infrastructure. To raise awareness on the undertaken effort, COTEVOS and the European Distributed Energy Resources Laboratories (DERlab) initiated a joint special issue of the DER Journal (International Journal of Distributed Energy Resources and Smart Grids).

"This issue of the DER Journal provides a perspective on the present challenges that the electricity grid faces in enabling the smart management of EV to offer flexibility services based on adequate ICT architectures and business models"

Eduardo Zabala, TECNALIA

Under the topic of the grid integration of EV, the released issue addresses several crucial aspects:

• testing infrastructures and analysis for EV integration based on interoperability, conformance and functionality testing architectures for multiple actors and services
• implementation guidelines based on the standards ISO/IEC15118 and IEC 61851-1 for EV, EV supply equipment manufacturers and other e-mobility actors
• centralised and decentralised charging management of EV in the view of the possible barriers (blackouts, peaks and voltage sags, etc.) with different control algorithms (lottery-based schedule model, artificial intelligence, etc.)
• impact assessment of the EV integration in the electric distribution network with the help of the predictive capability model for quantitative analysis of harmonic voltage and current levels

Covering such a vast thematic scope, this DER Journal shares knowledge and experience to various stakeholders of the EV research and market. Research infrastructures will find information on ways of enhancing their ICT testing capabilities for the EV integration in the smart grid environment. The EV industry, original equipment manufacturers and other service providers might find new ideas for business models and services based on EV charging management. Meanwhile, distribution operators are provided with new information on grid stability and the build-up for future EV developments.

“This issue of the DER Journal provides a perspective on the present challenges that the electricity grid faces in enabling the smart management of EV to offer flexibility services based on adequate ICT architectures and business models”, explains Eduardo Zabala of TECNALIA.

With the topics elaborated in this publication, the COTEVOS consortium stresses that besides the issues of EV interoperability, smart charging management and grid impact analysis, other technical challenges of the EV integration in the grid still have to be addressed in further research, such as high total cost of ownership and uncertainties regarding batteries reliability and driving ranges. The institutes and companies working within the COTEVOS consortium continue to contribute to user awareness, regulations, market requirements and the business development framework in order to elaborate EV business models and ensure their profitability under global sustainability concepts. The total effort will be consolidated in the upcoming COTEVOS White Book “Business Opportunities and Interoperability Assessment for EV Integration”.

The COTEVOS/DERlab special issue of the DER Journal “Grid Integration and Interoperability Assessment of Electric Vehicles” is available for free download on the COTEVOS website: www.cotevos.eu

Media Contact:

Maria Sosnina
DERlab (European Distributed Energy Resources Laboratories e.V.)
Königstor 59
34119 Kassel / Germany

Phone: +49-(0)561 7294 277
[email protected]