A worldwide increasing interest in technologies which are aiming towards the integration and control of producers of (renewable) energy, energy storage devices, consumer loads, and network operating equipment in a so-called “smart grid” can be observed worldwide. This integration can be achieved through the use of intelligent information and communication technology (ICT).
At the same time, the renaissance of the electric vehicle (EV) as an enabler technology for a more sustainable and a resource-saving means of transport as well as a mobile energy storage device is very much linked to the smart grid discussion. The breakthrough of electromobility can however only be achieved if the technology and communication flow related to the charging process of an EV is going to be standardised.
The ISO/IEC 15118 standard, entitled "Road vehicles – Vehicle-to-Grid Communication Interface", is a digital IP-based communication protocol which defines the communication between an EV and a charging station, also known as an Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE). The communication mechanisms are defined with regards to the conductive as well as inductive charging process and allow for an automated authentication, authorisation, charge control and billing based on a single contract installed in the EV and without the need of further user interaction.
The source code of this project originates from the electromobility research project iZEUS (izeus.kit.edu) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). The research was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology in the context of the ICT for Electromobility II initiative. The project lead of this Eclipse project is also an active member of the ISO/IEC 15118 standardisation body.
RISE V2G is a Reference Implementation Supporting the Evolution of the Vehicle-2-Grid communication interface ISO/IEC 15118 which provides an interoperable communication interface between an EV and an EVSE. A rise in the wide application of this standard is essential for reaching the goal of integrating EVs as flexible energy storage devices into a smart grid.
RISE V2G allows you to create an EVCC instance acting as the client sending request messages related to the respective charging scenario as well as an SECC instance acting as the server which is responding to those requests. EVCC stands for Electric Vehicle Communication Controller (inside the EV) whereas SECC is short for Supply Equipment Communication Controller (inside the EVSE).
This project currently focuses on the implementation of part 2 (ISO/IEC 15118-2) of this standard [1] defining the protocol requirements from the network up to the application layer (layer 3 to 7 of the ISO/OSI layer model) for the conductive charging scenario. As this standard describes a client/server-based protocol with the EV being the client and the EVSE being the server, this reference implementation covers both entities. The charging process according to [1] can be authenticated and authorised via a so-called plug-and-charge mechanism (PnC) or via external identification means (EIM) such as an RFID card. Furthermore, there are several message sets defined for AC (alternatic current) and DC (direct current) charging. This project covers all defined message sets and identification means.
The current status of the project consists of three subprojects which implement the conductive charging scenario:
- the EVCC project covering its state machine and request messages
- the SECC project covering its state machine and response messages
- a shared project with common classes used by both entities
The overall aim of this Eclipse project is to offer a reference implementation for all parts of the ISO/IEC 15118 standard.
There are several interfaces available through which an actual EVCC or SECC instance can be realised:
- An interface for the information exchange between the EVCC and the internal communication bus of the EV (e.g. CAN) in order to request the relevant charging parameters from the EV as well as to communicate e.g. charging profiles to the EV
- An interface for the information exchange between the SECC and the internal controller of the EVSE in order to request status information (e.g. about the RDC and smart meter values) or open/close the contactors for example
- An interface for the communication with a backend (e.g. for further communication via the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP)) to request a charging profile for the respective EV
Extensive logging through log4j is available and can be adjusted from debugging level to error level.
Certain properties regarding the EV as well as EVSE can be configured in the respective .properties files (EV.properties and EVSE.properties respectively) in each subproject.
Note that this project relies on a Java 8 runtime environment.
[1] http://www.iso.org/iso/home/store/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=55366
The messages transferred between the two entities EV and EVSE and EXI-encoded. EXI (Efficient XML Interchange) [1] is a very compact representation for the Extensible Markup Language (XML) format and reliably produces efficient byte-stream encodings of XML-based messages.
The only EXI library tested with the source code so far is EXIficient [2], which is published under the GPL v2. An interface has been created against which this EXIficient library has been tested, however, in order to comply to the EPL 1.0 requirements, this library is exchangeable with other libraries which could be licensed under different terms and conditions. The openV2G project [3] offers another implementation of an EXI codec, written in the C language and licensed under LGPL v3. Using a C-to-Java wrapper, this library could be used as well. Furthermore, openEXI [4] offers a Java/C# implementation under the Apache License V2.0.
[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/exi/
[2] http://exificient.sourceforge.net
[3] http://openv2g.sourceforge.net
[4] http://sourceforge.net/projects/openexi/
This project strives to serve as a reference implementation with open access in order to promote the wide adoption of this international standard and to enhance the electromobility experience in terms of ease of use for end customers charging their EVs at any charging station. With the Eclipse foundation being a respectable and trustworthy organisation with regards to their hosted projects, we encourage interested companies, research institutions and individuals to join this project and contribute to our goal.
Planned functionality: see project scheduling. JUnit tests need to be created as well.
Community efforts:
- Building up the community by advertising this project at various companies and institutions which are interested in smart charging
- Blog, Twitter, e-mobility newsletters, professional articels and news on company website
A first release of the implementation of ISO/IEC 15118-2 regarding AC and DC charging in EIM and PnC mode is planned by February/March 2015.
AC and DC charging in EIM mode is implemented and has been tested against a number of implementations from other companies on various testivals.
The implementation of the secure communication via a TLS channel, digital signatures and certificates is currently under development (update from January 14, 2015). It is the project owners intention to have a complete and fully compatible implementation of ISO/IEC 15118-2 with its first release.
Implementations regarding part 3 will be available by Q1/Q2 2015.
As the parts of the standard which define the inductive charging are not yet available as an international standard - or at least a final draft version - it cannot be stated exactly when a first implementation of those parts will be available.
All companies and institutes which are part of or cooperating with the eNterop (http://www.enterop.net/cms/index.php?page=home-en) research project. Furthermore, any company which is interested to enable their charging stations and electric vehicles to be able to communicate via this smart charging standard and which are interested in testing their implementation against a reference implementation. Last but not least, any experienced software developper who wants to be a part of this e-mobility project by inspecting the code and providing helpful suggestions with regards to code footprint reduction, stability and security.
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