This paper is the first in a series of documents designed to
record the progress of the SAE J2293 Task Force as it continues to
develop and refine the communication requirements between Plug-In
Electric Vehicles (PEV) and the Electric Utility Grid. In February,
2008 the SAE Task Force was formed and it started by reviewing the
existing SAE J2293 standard, which was originally developed by the
Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Controls Task Force in the 1990s.
This legacy standard identified the communication requirements
between the Electric Vehicle (EV) and the EV Supply Equipment
(EVSE), including off-board charging systems necessary to transfer
DC energy to the vehicle.
It was apparent at the first Task Force meeting that the
communications requirements between the PEV and utility grid being
proposed by industry stakeholders were vastly different in the type
of communications and messaging documented in the original
standard. In order to understand and adequately capture the
communication structure between plug-in electric vehicles and the
electric power grid, the task force generated two new documents.
The original J2293 was also re-issued to keep it intact for legacy
equipment.
The two new SAE documents are J2836™ and J2847. SAE J2836™
is an Information Report that captures the communication
requirements between plug-in electric vehicles and the electric
power grid based on use cases. A use case is simply a
"story" that includes various "actors", and the
"path" they take to achieve a particular functional goal.
By considering the actions of the actors working to achieve this
functional goal, a completed use case results in the documentation
of multiple scenarios, each containing a sequence of steps that
trace an end-to-end path. These sequential steps describe the
functions that the proposed systems and processes must provide,
directly leading to the requirements for the given use case.
SAE J2847 is a Recommended Practice which builds upon the Use
Cases defined in J2836™ and defines the detailed messages and
specifications for vehicle to utility communication.
Both SAE J2836 & J2847 have a series of dash 1 through dash
5 in order to keep the task force focused as we start, beginning
with the fundamental requirements and migrate to other more
advanced options. Dash 1 identifies the Utility rate and incentive
programs, dash 2 includes the detail for an EV Supply Equipment
(EVSE) for off-board DC chargers (updated version of J2293), dash 3
is for reverse energy flow, dash 4 includes diagnostics of the
charging system and PEV and dash 5 contains vehicle manufacturer
specific options.
The primary purpose of SAE J2836™ and J2847 is to achieve
grid-optimized energy transfer for plug-in electric vehicles - that
is, ensuring that vehicle customers have sufficient energy for
driving while minimizing system impact on the electric grid. This
can be accomplished, for example, by voluntary participation in
utility controlled-charging programs in return for financial
incentives, and hence the specification therefore supports
information flows that enable such mechanisms.
These specifications support energy transfer via both Forward
Power Flow (FPF) (grid-to-vehicle), and Reverse Power Flow (RPF)
from vehicle-to-grid. Forward Power Flow is used to charge the
vehicle's rechargeable energy storage system (RESS); support
for FPF is optional, though encouraged, for any plug-in vehicle
implementation. Reverse Power Flow may be used to discharge the
RESS, in order to provide support to the grid, or to power local
loads during a grid outage; support for RPF is also optional and
may be limited with various RESS applications.
Beyond its primary purpose of energy transfer, these documents
enable other applications between vehicles and the grid, such as
vehicle participation in various utility rates and incentive
programs, utility-controlled charging plans (e.g., Demand response
and direct load control), and participation in a Home-Area Network
(HAN) of utility-managed electrical devices. The protocol
established is designed to be extensible, so that as new
applications emerge, additional messages can be added while
maintaining support for the existing message set.