Connecting growing numbers of electric vehicles to the electrical grid creates an opportunity to demonstrate smart charging and discharging—referred to as vehicle grid integration—to balance fluctuations on the grid and benefit electric vehicle owners.
The goal of the Grid Communication Interface for Smart Electric Vehicle Services (InCISIVE) project was to prove the feasibility of the eight vehicle grid integration use cases defined in the California Vehicle-Grid Integration Roadmap, specifically all combinations of: unidirectional or bidirectional power flow, one or many aggregated resources, and unified or fragmented actor objectives.
The research identified and addressed vehicle-grid integration technology needs and gaps associated with:
1. Incompatibility of electric vehicles with electric vehicle supply equipment (charging stations) connectors and standards.
2. Multiple protocols and architectures for charging station-to-utility communication.
3. Inconsistencies in implementation of vehicle-grid integration protocols.
This project designed a comprehensive system architecture that could address these three technical barriers. Using this architecture, the project demonstrated that the technology and standards support all vehicle grid integration use cases.
The InCISIVE technology was developed, implemented, and tested in a prototype capable of smart charging and discharging. Because electric utilities have programs and plans for smart-charging-capable charging stations but not for stations that accommodate discharge from the vehicle, Andromeda Power advanced two smart-charging products to the market: Strada and Zen. These products were qualified by Pacific Gas & Electric for the Electric Vehicle Charge Network Program and by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority for the Charge Ready New York Program.
The research also identified inconsistencies and mismatches between vehicle-grid integration protocols and produced a list of recommendations to address them.
