Stekker has been part of a consortium working on implementing the S2 standard, and is focused on the implementation of S2 for charge points.
- Our open source S2-library is on Github
S2 is an open European standard developed for smart energy management. It defines how energy management systems communicate with flexible devices like EV chargers, heat pumps or batteries. The standard was developed by TNO in the Netherlands and has been adopted as part of the European smart grid infrastructure.
S2 Differs from Other Standards
OCPP focuses on charge point to back-end communication. OpenADR focuses on getting grid signals to energy management systems. S2 focuses on how devices in a house, business or building will talk about their energy needs to an energy management system.
So developers designed S2 specifically for coordinating flexible loads within a building or site. This prevents devices having to build their own smart energy management system – as long as the device just is able to communicate about its needs or limits.
This way, companies like Stekker can focus on making sure that the underlying algorithm of smart charging are optimal, while individual devices simply communicate to whoever wants to hear it, about what it can and cannot do if asked for flexibility in its energy needs.
How it works
What is usually known as an Energy Management System (EMS), is called a Customer Energy Manager (CEM) in the S2 world. It is a device that coordinates multiple other devices.
The Resource Manager is the name given to any flexible device – like a chargepoint, battery, light, and so forth. Any future device which supports S2 will be able to communicate its needs to the energy manager.
This architecture allows sophisticated optimization across different types of equipment at any type of location management by an EMS.
Why Fleet Managers Should Care
S2 has evolved from a Dutch pilot into the European standard EN 50491-12-2. This formalization ensures that your infrastructure isn’t locked into a proprietary ecosystem. Because it is a recognized European Norm, S2-compliant hardware from any manufacturer can seamlessly talk to the Stekker platform, aligning your site with the latest EU smart-grid regulations.
S2 compatibility is increasingly important in developing software that is grid-aware. Dutch grid operators and aggregators increasingly prefer S2 (and OpenADR-) compliant systems for demand response participation. It is a European open standard.
Stekker supports S2
Stekker is one of the partners in the implementation of S2 in the Netherlands. If you’re working on S2-compliant devices and want to be able to talk to charge points – or more specifically: CPO’s – let us know at stekker.com/contact
For more information about S2, see our Github S2-library