One of the large global challenges during the coming years will be to establish environmental friendly possibilities of mobility for persons and goods. This IEC workshop will deal with “Safety aspects in the area of e-mobility” particularly dealing with aspects related to all kinds of electric motor cars. The workshop was prepared in cooperation with IEC SMB Strategic Group 6 (SG 6) “Electrotechnology for mobility”.
Over all the past years the system “car” and the systems “electrical products” and “electrical installations” have been in cooperative coexistence. But now with the upcoming importance” of e-mobility these systems grow together to a new system “e-mobility.
Besides the technical challenges there are also regulatory difficulties for manufacturers of cars and electrotechnical products to overcome. Whereas cars have traditionally to comply with the UN ECE rules electrical equipment has to comply with European Directives (e.g. Low Voltage Directive and EMC Directive in the EU), the US legislation (e.g. the NEC), many GB standards mandatory under Chinese legislation etc. How do legislators guarantee that all these requirements in different legislations lead to a similar level of safety everywhere? As this cannot be expected by regulation the international standardization bodies IEC and ISO will have to take over a major role in this context by setting up a well coordinated and consistent file of standards. A major step forward has been made by the MoU signed by IEC and ISO in 2010.
If real progress of environmental friendly driving is regarded as a further goal in e-mobility activities the electrical energy must not be produced by CO2 emitting methods. Using renewable sources of energy production (e.g. wind, photovoltaic, thermal solar power, fuel cells) will provide new challenges for the stability of the grid with a decentralized energy feeding and an intelligent control. These kinds of aspects will become without any doubt a major field of activities in IEC not only in the area of e-mobility. Besides aspects of functionality of smart grids there arise new safety challenges in this area which require many new or modified and redesigned protective measures.
The charging stations (wall boxes) build the interface from the grid to the e-vehicle. The different charging modes require close cooperation between standardizers responsible for the e-vehicles on the one side and those on the side of the grid, especially in respect to consistent and complementary safety requirements. The level of protection for the user must be equivalent on both sides. Furthermore a cross-check is required so that the level of protection for a driver of an e-vehicle is comparable to that of a user of household equipment or of an operator of a machine.
The IEC provides a number of so called basic safety and group safety standards which are mandatory for product standardizers within IEC. Such standards deal e.g. with aspects of protection against electric shock, insulation coordination or insulation materials which should be applicable without any difficulties also within electric vehicles. The coordination of these horizontal safety and group safety standards within IEC is provided by the Advisory Committee on Safety (ACOS).
The success of e-vehicles on the market will without any doubt depend on the progress in the development of suitable batteries and their early availability. This depends on the storage capacity and lifetime on the one side as well as on the level of safety on the other side, including fire hazards. Having in mind the quantity of energy comparable to that what we have today in liquid fuel tanks this will be a real challenge for the designers of batteries as well as for the designers of e-vehicles to find right and safe ways to integrate these batteries in the vehicle.
In the light of these safety related challenges in the area of e-mobility the program for the 10th ACOS Workshop will cover the following items:
- a brief overview of the IEC and the role of ACOS;
- the offer of the IEC in the area of basic safety and group safety electrotechnical standards applicable also for e-mobility
- already existing activities related to e-mobility
- inside (primarily ISO responsibility) and
- outside the e-vehicle (primarily IEC responsibility)
- the cooperation with ISO in the field of e-mobility
- to underline the possible ways to fulfill the requirements presented on the first day, the workshop will contain 3 breakout sessions dealing with specific subjects.
Practical applications of IEC and/or ISO safety standards for
- electrical safety aspects inside e-cars
- functional safety in relation to e-vehicles
- Safety aspects related to an e-vehicle connected to the grid
The format of the ACOS Workshop will also ensure enough opportunities for discussions during the meeting sessions.
* ACOS members and speakers please register separately with Ms. Melanie Feuerriegel.