Implementation of IEC 61850 Based Integrated EV Charging Management in Smart Grids

Number of Electric Vehicles (EVs) is continuously increasing. There are environmental incentives to encourage their use. With this trend, the amount of EVs and the overall charging load they represent are bound to reach significant levels. Power system companies need to develop necessary mechanisms to manage them. There are works in the literature talking about smart charging algorithms that is aimed at optimizing charging burden on the grid. However, the communication infrastructure required to implement such smart solutions is not discussed. Considering that there are different car manufacturers with different models and they need to communicate with charging stations (CSs) with different equipment, such communication needs to be done in a standard and interoperable way. This paper presents an IEC 61850-based implementation of smart charging algorithm and related message exchanged between EVs and CSs. Current IEC 61850 standard does not have all the design tools required for such an implementation. Necessary models are developed following this standard, they are implemented in real-networks as intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) and the message exchanges are validated. This implementation shows that it is possible to develop an interoperable solution for EV charging management systems that can accommodate different EVs and CSs. This approach enables interoperable and interchangeable operation in power systems.