Overview

The threat of harmful climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. If we are to meet this challenge, ways must be sought to drastically reduce - right across all sectors of our economy and society - emissions of carbon dioxide and the other greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming. This year the European electricity industry set out its clear intention to continue to take responsible action, when CEOs from power companies accounting for the majority of power generation in Europe signed a declaration committing them to work for a CO2-neutral electricity supply by mid-century.

Meanwhile Europe’s progressively lower-carbon electricity also has the potential to contribute to a more climate-friendly transport system by fuelling all-electric or plug-in hybrid road vehicles. Electricity is a widely-available energy vector produced all over the EU and its greater use in road transport can, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, also simultaneously help to promote fuel diversifi cation, strengthen energy security and improve air quality. We therefore believe that plug-in electric and hybrid vehicles have the potential to contribute significantly to meeting a range of environmental and economic challenges faced by our transportation system.

Integrating the charging system for electric vehicles into Europe’s electricity networks will not require the development of any specific new technology. The European electricity industry is now engaged in promoting investment in the necessary infrastructure in order to foster the development of electric vehicles and ensure customers proper and convenient access to the electricity grid.

However, in order to ensure rapid market penetration and avoid any future incompatibility, it is vital to work out a cross-industry agreement on how to charge the vehicles and arrange for payment of the electricity. Standardising electric vehicle charging infrastructure will provide benefits to all stakeholders and developing standards is of the utmost importance to drive forward progress in European car and battery technology research, development and innovation.

For all these reasons, we call upon all stakeholders, transport and energy policymakers, companies in the relevant sectors, and standards bodies to support the drive towards standardisation in electric vehicle charging systems.

Advantages of electric vehicles

The commercial use of electric vehicles offers several major benefits for sustainable mobility.

• Helping to attain major EU energy-environment policy goals: replacing conventional internal combustion engines by electric vehicles would result in major reductions in CO2 emissions and in air quality improvements, especially in cities. Electrifying road transport would also boost Europe’s energy supply security by braking the growing dependence on imported fossil fuels.
• Electric vehicle technology offers an opportunity to take the lead towards a sustainable green economy which contributes to Europe’s competitiveness: it offers the opportunity for the EU to become a front runner in producing electric vehicles.
• Electric cars are more efficient than alternative transport technologies. Given the technology and infrastructure levels currently in place, grid-connected vehicles can become reality. Moreover, large-scale rollout of electric vehicles would have a limited impact on the electricity system load but foster development of more intelligent distribution grids (‘smart grids’).

Benefits of an agreed common standard

Standards play a key role in the development and deployment of technology in society, providing an indispensable basis for widespread market penetration and customer convenience. Agreed standards tend to encourage innovation, boost productivity and shape market structure in a way that enhances economic efficiency, reducing or eliminating technical barriers that can create market distortions.

For plug-in vehicles to become a success, both hardware (connector and cables) and communication software standards are a prerequisite to the establishment of a secure investment climate for the required infrastructure. Common standards will generate cost benefits and help to create economies of scale for both electricity companies and the automobile industry. They will also help to avoid the risk of stranded assets resulting from the deployment of interim proprietary solutions and foster the sharing of development costs.

Of course the customer will be the key determinant for the commercial success of electric transport. Common standards will help to ensure the driver enjoys a convenient recharging solution across the European Union that will avoid a multiplicity of different cables and adaptors and/or retrofi t costs for adapting to new charging systems. Consumers will be able to choose their electricity supplier, and even more importantly, will be able to charge their vehicle in charging stations across Europe.

Working towards an agreed, harmonised standard

Experts from the electricity distribution business have already been working with automotive companies and original equipment firms to find an agreement on initiating standards for connecting electric vehicles to the power grids. This initiative provides a starting point, the aim being to draw up a roadmap for a rapid standardisation process. The common technical approach must then be further developed by the international standardisation bodies ISO and IEC.

The signatories to this Declaration, integrated European electricity companies, distribution system operators, and national electricity sector associations, support the development of pre-standards for vehicle charging, with a view to driving forward market deployment. They hereby commit themselves to apply these pre-standards when developing infrastructure and vehicle connections, conscious that this approach will enable them to gain early experience with business models and to better assess the impact on the electricity grid when the standards are offi cially approved by ISO and IEC.

Next steps

• Application of the identified pre-standards until the development of the official standards is completed by ISO/IEC
• Pilot projects for electric vehicles to analyse the impact on existing network architecture and the conditions for the development of a competitive market; future requirements for active demand management and storage possibilities need to be scrutinised in the light of the growing grid integration of renewable energies and challenges in balancing the power supply
• Continuous and credible contributions to the research and development of emerging electric drive and battery technologies
• Cooperation among the various stakeholders to ensure a clear, stable regulatory framework conducive to investments, in order to attain mass market deployment of electric vehicles
• Creation of appropriate incentives to overcome market hurdles and initial commercialisation hurdles for this technology; given the uncertainty of the oil price, the right fi scal and tax policies are needed to address the substantial fi rst-cost hurdles facing the consumer
• Deployment and availability of infrastructure to serve consumers with different usage needs - eg different charging options - plus proper integration into the retail electricity market
• Full recognition of the role of electric vehicles in the forthcoming European Commission White Paper on a Sustainable Transport Future