Whitepaper: OCPP and IEC 61850 - A Winning Team

DNV published a nice whitepaper on the use of IEC 61850 in conjunction with OCPP (Open Charge Point Protocol):

Excerpt:

"EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In the coming years, utilities will see more and more electric vehicles connecting to their electricity grid. Cars, busses, vans, trucks, ships and airplanes will charge their batteries drawing energy from the grid. In some cases, these vehicles will also discharge their batteries and feed energy back into the grid, effectively becoming a Distributed Energy Resource (DER). It means that utilities will work together with new customers, systems and use cases. To integrate DERs safely into the grid, information exchange and control is needed. The IEC 61850 protocol for electricity grid control and OCPP for charging infrastructure control combine to ensure that the charging and discharging of vehicles takes place whilst ensuring grid stability and meeting the customers' needs and expectations.

Even though both protocols were developed by different industry groups in different periods of time, the combination of these two protocols can fulfil all requirements that utilities might have to control electric vehicles acting as DERs. The paper list use cases that a utility might use to control a DER, and shows for each use case which IEC 61850 settings to use and how these settings will be transferred to the charging station via OCPP.

This paper aims to help the industry better understand both protocols and help with the implementation of the combination of IEC 61850 and OCPP in charging station management systems."

Click HERE for the whitepaper (59 pages, PDF, 1.7 MB)

Some Information About My Personal Situation

You may be surprised about the fact that I posted very few information on this blog for some time. Let me explain our family situation here at home. I received an email today from a colleague and follower of this blog. This email encouraged me to publish excerpts from the emails we exchanged and to add some thoughts at the end of this post:

Email I received on 2021-10-16:

"Dear Karlheinz,

Perhaps you remember me, I've long been a keen follower of your blog on IEC 61850, and we have exchanged e-mails a few times in the past. ... I am writing to you because 

I remain looking forward to any news from you ... Kind Regards ..."

Email I sent on 2021-10-16:

"Dear ...,

I am sorry to read these lines ... 

I have changed my work (now being retired) to nurse my wife 24/7 … she was diagnosed ALS in January 2017. We are happy that the Lord Jesus has helped us to do that work together with one of our daughters. My wife needs non-invasive ventilation around the clock … we are still together … which is very good.

So, as a consequence I have more or less stopped my business …

Have a great weekend!

Best Regards,
Karlheinz"

Email I received on 2021-10-24:

"Dear Karlheinz,

I am very sorry to learn that you stopped your business because your wife is seriously ill.

To be honest I had realized that the frequency of your posts had declined in the last months... Your blog was a wonderful source of information and it will be missed by the smart grid community. Your posts were real, technical, relevant, useful stuff and not the usual buzzword-laden, over-hyped bullshit we are all used to read these days.

Given the circumstances, I believe no one will say you didn't do what was your duty.

I wish all the best to you and your family."

Some Thoughts to think about:

• Have you ever thought about the electric power in your personal life or the life of the people around you 👪?
  
  
• What could we do to help keeping the power flow? It is more than IEC 61850 ... 
  
  
• Smart(er) Grids are nice ... more important is the need for power in situations where the public grid is down ... In our case we need power for the breathing ventilator 24/7, power for the lifter to lift my wife from chair to wheel chair ... to bed ... power for the nursing bed (move it up and down), power for light, power for heating and cooking, ... and so on. It is more than emergency power ... we need at least some power 24/7 ... we use just PV, batteries and inverters, ... 
  
  
• Did you know that (in Germany) we had in 2019 some 4,100,000 care-dependent people that needed nursing ... 3,310,000 nursed at home (usually in families), 818,000 in nursing homes, ... even in nursing homes it is not required to have emergency power !! ... some have. What about the many homes that need electric power 24/7 to survive ... I guess most of them believe that there is always power ... except for a few minutes per year ... 
  Click HERE for the source of the German nursing situation.
  
  
• One of the most crucial challenges in the future is to provide permanent available power to those homes that nurse people ... 
  
  
• Try to contact your neighborhood, your police station, nearby hospital, fire station, power utility, ... to figure out how and where you could get power to operate the breathing ventilator or other medical devices in case of a blackout! You may be surprised what you get ... almost nothing.
  
  
• It seems to be more important (or interesting) to install hundreds of super charger stations along the German Autobahn ... than to care about a minimum of power to help care-dependent people to survive.
  
  
• We need all-over more electric storages ... small and big ones ... for various applications ... in order to have electric power whenever and wherever we need some ...
  
  
• Let me know what you think ... or report about your experiences ... Thanks.

Path to future Power System – Sprint or Marathon?

Many people have assumed that the conversion of today's power system into a smarter system could be done in a few years – comparable with a Sprint.

After eight years of extensive training on IEC 61850 and other power related topics I conducted for more than 2,750 experts, from more than 700 companies and more than 70 countries I have learned that the conversion is more like a Marathon!

Many people believe that smart meters would convert the system in a few years to become a Smart Grid. The German Network Regulator has stated that a roll-out of huge number of smart meters is not required for the stable network operation. The report states also that the development of a Smart(er) Grid is more like an evolution – not a revolution.

Click HERE for the Report (pdf, German only)

At the Hanover Fair in April 2010 I took the following photo of a hybrid PEV vehicle and a charging station. The battery was charged with a regular extension cord connected to a conventional outlet – in the morning before visitors walked around!!

Photo: Karlheinz Schwarz

The car is already a Sprinter – but the Plug into the future could be expected after a “Marathon” – it just takes some more time!

The International Energy Agency (IEA) states in their “Technology Roadmap on Smart Grids” that “The “smartening” of the electricity system is an evolutionary process, not a one-time event.”

Click HERE for the IEA roadmap [pdf, 50 pages].

Click HERE for a discussion of the results of the stimulus funding of the U.S. government by end of 2011. According to that report “18 million [installed] smart meters only covers 13 percent of the 142 million customers in the U.S., for example, and automating 671 substations leaves another 11,795 more to go, or 95 percent of those remaining in the United States. As befits its title, this stimulus funding was meant to stimulate a new wave of smart grid investment across U.S. utilities, not merely to serve as a one-time jobs-and-spending jolt.

My students are told all the time: Do not hurray! Take your time. To win in a Marathon you need sustainable training. Only Smart (i.e., well trained) People will be able to implement the needed systems to measure, monitor, control, protect, optimize, … the electrical power system.

Normungs-Roadmap für E-Mobilität und IEC 61850

Über die Webseite des DIN (Berlin) wurde am 30.11.2010 die "Deutsche Normungs-Roadmap Elektromobilität" veröffentlicht:

Die deutsche Normungs-Roadmap
Elektromobilität – Version 1
Version 1 - 30. November 2010

Die Normungs-Roadmap referenziert auch die Normenreihe IEC 61850 als Bestandteil der zukünftigen Ladeinfrastruktur! Das war zu erwarten, weil in diesem Kontext beispielsweise auch das drei-phasige Drehstromnetz eine Rolle spielt, das bereits seit Jahren in einem Standard-Modell definiert ist: MMXU nach IEC 61850-7-4.

Als engagierter Normer (seit 25 Jahren) sehe ich mit den Smart(er)-Grid-Aktivitäten eine große Chance für die Normung!! Ich hoffe, dass alle betroffenen Kreise in Deutschland die bereits BESTEHENDEN Normen anwenden, und nicht - wie im Bereich der industriellen Feldbusnormung - in die Vielfalt verfallen!!

„Wir streben eine weltweite Normung an, um möglichst viele Synergien von nationalen und internationalen Konzepten zu erreichen – vor allem auch im Sinne des Kunden“, sagt Michael Dick in der Pressemitteilung zur Roadmap. Liegt hier der Schwerpunkt auf "weltweite Normung" oder "EINE weltweite Normung"?

Das ist ein lobenswertes Ziel! Die EINE Norm ist mit IEC 61850 für den Bereich der Ladeinfrastruktur im Wesentlichen bereits erreicht. Alle grundlegenden Teile der Normenreihe IEC 61850 und IEC 61400-25 sind seit mehreren Jahren bereits International Standard. Diese Normen sind zum guten Teil ohne Änderungen anwendbar!

Klicken Sie HIER zur Pressenotiz mit dem Link zur Normungs-Roadmap.

Chinese Strong and Smart Grid Roadmap available

The "State Grid Cooperation China" (SGCC) has published the 139 page "SGCC Framework and Roadmap for Strong and Smart Grid Standards". One of the key challenges is the standardization. Several IEC TC 57 and TC 88 standards are crucial for the Strong and Smart Grid. Among others the following standards are key: IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25 (15+ times referenced), IEC 61968/61970 (30+), IEC 62351 (5+).

The first sentence of the three sentence summary states: "The release and implementation of SGCC Framework and Roadmap for Strong and Smart Grid Standards will greatly boost the standardization of smart grid technologies in all related areas, promote wide public involvement and facilitate technical innovation and industrial upgrading."

The preface reads: " ... Faced with new challenges in energy sector, State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) officially put forward the strategy of building a world-leading strong and smart grid with ultra high voltage grid as its backbone and subordinate grids coordinated at various voltage levels, featured as being IT-based, automated, interactive, based on independent innovation. Up to now, remarkable progress has been made in this regard. By 2020, a smart grid that is robust and reliable, economical and efficient, clean and environmental-friendly, transparent and open, user-friendly and interactive is to be established. Since August 2009, SGCC has started 228 demonstration projects of 21 categories in 26 provinces and municipalities. By now, the demonstration projects have been progressing smoothly. ... Based on SGCC smart grid research findings and standard framework, taking IEC smart grid standardization roadmap and international standardization gap into consideration, SGCC set priorities for international standards and prepared new working item proposals for IEC. ..."

Click HERE to download the 9 MB framework and roadmap.

During the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010), SGCC promoted power grid technology upgrading from the following ten aspects, and accelerate the progressing of model projects that applies IEC 61850 among ten new technologies: Substation Automation Conformed with IEC 61850.

Click HERE for details.

IEC 61850 on IPC@CHIP® at Hannover Messe, April 19-23, 2010

Beck IPC (Pohlheim, Germany), SystemCorp (Perth, Australia), and NettedAutomation (Karlsruhe, Germany) will present at the Hannover Messe 2010 (Hannover, Germany) in Hall 27 Booth E51 on 19.-23. April 2010 the IEC 61850 integrated on the IPC@CHIP^®, compact modules and ruggedized IEDs for harsh environments based on IPC@CHIP^®.

The IEC 61850 conformant products shown in Hannover are applicable for many domains of utility automation - to make the power delivery system smarter:

• Smart Automation of Power Generation
  Monitoring, protection and control of process and equipment (reactive power control, condition monitoring of turbines, ...)
• Smart Automation of Power Transmission
  Monitoring, protection and control of process and equipment (interlocking, condition monitoring of transformer and switch gears, ...)
• Smart Automation of Power Distribution
  Monitoring, protection and control of process and equipment (fault location, power restoration, condition monitoring of transformer, ...)
• Smart Automation of Vehicle to Grid
  Monitoring and control of process and equipment (charger station, condition monitoring of charging station, ...)
• Smart Automation of Loads and Generation
  Monitoring and control of process and equipment (load control, active and reactive power control, ...)

Due to the fact that IEC 61850 / IEC 61400-25 define many common aspects of standardized information and information exchange services it is obvious that standard conformant products can be applied in many domains outside the power industry: in gas and oil transmission and distribution networks, and in any other industrial automation domain.

First Release of the NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke today (2009-09-24) unveiled an accelerated plan for developing standards to transform the U.S. power distribution system into a secure, more efficient and environmentally friendly Smart Grid and create clean-energy jobs.

The NIST Draft Publication "NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Release 1.0 (Draft)" published by the Office of the U.S. National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability" is the result of thousands of working-hours of hundreds of smart people from many states and countries.

Smart Grids will be build on standards. The most crucial standards are required for the following areas:

• Demand Response and Consumer Energy Efficiency
• Wide Area Situational Awareness
• Electric Storage
• Electric Transportation
• Advanced Metering Infrastructure
• Distribution Grid Management
• Cyber Security
• Network Communications

NIST found that the market has reached already consensus on 16 standards. After review of this list, there are now 31 standards understood as crucial for the smart grid. Many crucial IEC standards like standards from IEC TC 57: IEC 60870-6 (TASE.2), IEC 61850, IEC 61969/61970 (CIM), IEC 62351; IEC TC 65: IEC 62541; other committees: ISO/IEC 15045, ISO/IEC 15067, ISO/IEC 18012, ... are members of the list of the 31 standards!

The experts identified some 70 gaps in the list of standards. 14 gaps have been identified as MOST CRUCIAL to be solved:

"For each, an action plan has been developed, specific organizations tasked, and aggressive milestones in 2009 or early 2010 established. One action plan has already been completed. The Priority Action Plans and targets for completion are (in bold = impact from/on standards of IEC TC 57):

1. Smart meter upgradeability standard (completed)
2. Common specification for price and product definition (early 20I0)
3. Common scheduling mechanism for energy transactions (year-end 2009)
4. Common information model for distribution grid management (year-end 20I0)
5. Standard demand response signals (January 2010)
6. Standard for energy use information (January 2010)
7. IEC 61850 Objects / DNP3 Mapping (2010)
8. Time synchronization (mid-2010)
9. Transmission and distribution power systems models mapping (year-end 20I0)
10. Guidelines for use of IP protocol suite in the Smart Grid(mid-year20I0)
11. Guidelines for use of wireless communications in the Smart Grid (mid-year 2010)
12. Electric storage interconnection guidelines (mid-2010)
13. Interoperability standards to support plug-in electric vehicles (December 2010)
14. Standard meter data profiles (year-end 2010)

Click HERE to read the press release of today (2009-09-24).

Click HERE to download the 90 page Draft Release 1.0 of the NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards

With that official Draft it is confirmed that crucial international Standards published by IEC TC 57, TC 65, and TC 88 are key for the sustainable interoperability of smart devices and smart systems in smart grids - developed by smart people.

Click HERE for a discussion on the availability of smart people.

Batteries and Electric Vehicles - U.S. Government spends $2.4 Billion in Grants

According to the White House press release (2009-08-05) President Obama "announced 48 new advanced battery and electric drive projects that will receive $2.4 billion in funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. These projects, selected through a highly competitive process by the Department of Energy, will accelerate the development of U.S. manufacturing capacity for batteries and electric drive components as well as the deployment of electric drive vehicles, helping to establish American leadership in creating the next generation of advanced vehicles."

The award winners will invest another $2.4 Billion.

One of the biggest deployment projects will be implemented by ETEC in cooperation with Nissan. According to ETEC: "The Project will install electric vehicle charging infrastructure and deploy up to 1,000 Nissan battery electric vehicles in strategic markets in five states: Arizona, California, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington. ... To support the Nissan EV, the Project will install approximately 12,500 Level 2 (220V) charging systems and 250 Level 3 (fast-charge) systems."

Click HERE for the full White House press release.

Click HERE for the ETEC press release.