Smart, Secure and Interoperable Charging Infrastructure with Plug and Charge

An intelligent charging infrastructure is one of the key factors in the success of electromobility, as all EV consumers demand a secure and convenient charging infrastructure. The secure and convenient charging session is determined by the authentication technology. Before the charging session is started, each charging session must be authenticated and authorized. There are different technologies for this. Plug and Charge technology is the smartest, most convenient, and most secure authentication technology, which is a legal requirement for every charging station in the USA. The secure and convenient charging session with Plug and Charge (PnC) is based on digital certificates of the public key infrastructure in the vehicle and charging station, which are created from different public key infrastructures (PKI). If the certificates in the vehicle (EV) and charging station (EVSE) are created from different PKIs, the charging session must not be started. This interoperability with Plug and Charge (PnC) is the major challenge for secure and convenient charging.This study describes the further challenges and enables the presentation of solution options for the interoperable charging infrastructure. The interoperable Publik Key infrastructure is considered and evaluated with different solution options and relevant requirements for this solution are derived and validated with test bench and the results are described in detail.