OCPP & IEC 61850: A winning team

In the coming years, utilities will see more and more electric vehicles connecting to their electricity grid. Cars, busses, vans, trucks, ships and airplanes will charge their batteries drawing energy from the grid.

In some cases, these vehicles will also discharge their batteries and feed energy back into the grid, effectively becoming a Distributed Energy Resource (DER). It means that utilities will work together with new customers, systems and use cases. To integrate DERs safely into the grid, information exchange and control is needed.

The IEC 61850 protocol for electricity grid control and OCPP for charging infrastructure control combine to ensure that the charging and discharging of vehicles takes place whilst ensuring grid stability and meeting the customers’ needs and expectations.

This paper aims to help the industry better understand both protocols and help with the implementation of the combination of IEC 61850 and OCPP in charging station management systems.