The ZigBee Alliance, a global ecosystem of companies creating wireless solutions for use in energy management, commercial and consumer applications, and SAE International are collaborating on ZigBee Smart Energy standard development. They intend for their efforts to make ZigBee Smart Energy the preferred technology supporting plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) and enabling essential vehicle to grid (V2G) communication and power capabilities. (Earlier post.)
ZigBee Smart Energy is a home area network (HAN) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) application layer utility industry standard that focuses on communications related to efficiency, usage, price, and messaging. The collaboration recognizes the important role SAE International plays as the focal point for integrating automobile communication with emerging energy management requirements. Using ZigBee Smart Energy to define how PEVs and the grid interact, whether at the consumer’s home or at a remote location, will be one of the goals the two groups address.
Ultimately, this initiative will provide future PEV drivers with the real-time information needed to control their transportation energy use, manage their charging costs and receive utility incentives for participating in PEV programs, the partners said. It also provides the control functions necessary to safely manage the charging of PEVs while maintaining grid integrity.
Adding ZigBee Smart Energy to PEVs will give automakers and utilities a common language to manage the charging, storage and use of energy in PEVs. SAE International’s formidable task is to help coordinate the urgent efforts of many different companies, industries and disciplines. It realizes the faster standards appear, the sooner electric-powered vehicles can gain consumer acceptance as a new and reliable mode of transportation.
—Richard Scholer, SAE Hybrid Vehicle Communications Task Force Committee Chair
Work between the groups is already underway with completion targeted for next year when ZigBee Smart Energy version 2.0 is scheduled for completion. SAE International joins ZigBee Smart Energy development efforts led by some of the largest utilities, suppliers and technology companies in the world.
ZigBee Smart Energy 2.0 will not replace ZigBee Smart Energy version 1; it is intended to offer utilities and energy service providers another choice when creating advanced metering infrastructure and home area networks (HANs).
In addition to all the services and devices found in ZigBee Smart Energy version 1, version 2.0 will feature control of plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) charging, installation, configuration and firmware download for HAN devices, prepay services, user information and messaging, load control, demand response and common information and application profile interfaces for wired and wireless HANs.