EIS Alliance Defines Support for EV Charger Data Exchange Between Customers and the Grid

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Energy Information Standards Alliance (EIS Alliance) has released its first set of domain-specific "use cases." A "use case" identifies the energy information that needs to be shared between the end-user customer and other domains within a smart grid for a given type of equipment or system.  The first use case has been developed to support EV Chargers.  The document outlines the dataflow between Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) and Customer Energy Management Systems (CEMS).  The use case can be downloaded at www.eisalliance.org.

"EV chargers are being rapidly deployed to support the growing base of electric cars," according to David Bunzel, Executive Director of the EIS Alliance.  "With more than 3 million electric vehicles expected to be in the U.S. in the next five years, establishing an infrastructure to support these vehicles is essential.  EV chargers at commercial and industrial buildings are an important segment of this market.  The EVSE to Building use cases will provide for many of the data exchanges and services needed to power these vehicles and also integrate them into the CEMS, which will optimize power consumption."

CEMS serve as the central hub to manage energy use, optimized for residential, commercial, and industrial customers.  Electric vehicle charging is the first domain to be addressed, with generators, water heaters, HVAC systems, storage systems, alternate energy generation, and lighting all on the Alliance roadmap to support seamless interoperability with the smart grid.

"Optimizing energy in facilities will continue to grow in importance, especially with the expanding demand for High Performance Buildings", said Sharon Dinges, sustainability engineer at Trane, a leading global provider of indoor comfort systems and solutions and a brand of Ingersoll Rand.  "Integrating EV chargers into the CEMS not only provides additional opportunities to manage energy consumption, but also enables additional services that will improve the customer experience."

The CEMS will be able to receive energy information, such as demand response and real-time pricing from the utility, and decide how to effectively manage these in the facility.  The EV charger use cases also support a dashboard, which will display critical information relating to the EV chargers, supporting the facility manager and the decisions made to manage energy usage and costs.

"With tens of thousands of EV charging stations being deployed in the next year and more than one-third of them expected in commercial or industrial facilities, the EVSE-to-building use cases are a critical component to establishing an efficient infrastructure," said Richard Lowenthal, founder and CTO at Coulomb Technologies.  "The integration of CEMS with EV chargers will benefit building owners, tenants and EV drivers.  It allows the integration of EV charging into other business practices and increases the energy efficiency of charging vehicles."

"Enhancing the customer experience, whether it is the facility manager or the vehicle owner, will accelerate growth of this market," noted Kevin Morrow, Executive Vice President of ECOtality.  "The EIS Alliance use cases will provide a critical component to the infrastructure needed for EV chargers to become successful in the market."

About the EIS Alliance

The EIS Alliance is a consortium of companies involved with products and services that support customer energy management.  Member companies include A.O. Smith, Alerton , Aruba Networks, Coulomb Technologies, ECOtality, Honeywell, Ingersoll Rand, Johnson Controls, Park Pod, Trane, and Tridium.  

SOURCE Energy Information Standards Alliance