First Mercury ‘Bluetooth for low carbon tech’ specifications released
Image: Easee
The Mercury Consortium has released its first set of specifications for electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE).
The aim of the specification is to ensure that EV chargers can respond to grid signals to deliver flexibility services while also providing consumers with control and choice.
The release of the preliminary version is to collect broader stakeholder input before finalising the requirements and an associated test specification later in the summer.
Among the companies that as members of the Consortium have agreed to adopt the requirements are EV charging manufacturers including Easee and Zaptec from Norway and UK-based GivEnergy.
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“Mercury exists to turn interoperability from an ambition into an action plan. Our goal is simple and global: ensure that every energy device- from EV chargers and EVs to home batteries, heat pumps, solar inverters, smart thermostats and water boilers – is built grid-ready by design,” said Serge Subiron, CEO of the Mercury Consortium.
“By creating a standard functional framework, we’re providing regulators and markets the clarity to help quickly scale flexibility. Our goal is to secure the adoption of Mercury guidelines across all continents and enable the certification of millions of devices within the next couple of years. This is a critical aspect of building the power system of the future.”
The Mercury Consortium, newly incorporated as a non-profit, was initiated by Kraken and EPRI in December 2024 with inspiration from the development of the Bluetooth connectivity standards, with the aim to define clear device level specifications to enable the integration of distributed energy resources to the networks.
In addition to the EVSE, other device categories to be addressed include heat pumps, thermostats, battery energy storage systems and smart inverters.
A key aspect of the specifications is interoperability so that devices can be ‘plug and play’.
Mercury EVSE requirements
The Mercury EVSE requirements are designed to specify a minimum functional requirement that will facilitate participation in a variety of grid services that could provide additional value to the consumer.
The goal is to enable the EVSE to play a pivotal role in demand flexibility services, compatible with any upstream control architecture – such as aggregators, home energy management systems or utilities – which monitors and manages energy consumption.
EVSEs with Mercury certification should be easier to integrate into interfaces from DER managers.
Three levels have been defined based on response times for different flexibility markets and flexibility signals. Mercury level 1 (Mercury Flash) is up to 2 seconds, Mercury level 2 (Mercury Fast) is up to 10 seconds and Mercury level 3 (Mercury Ready) is up to 30 seconds.
Distributed energy resources can then be tested and certified in any of these three levels.
While these requirements are finalised the working group intends to expand the guidelines to integrate with an open standard protocol such as OpenADR and a home IoT standard such as Matter along with broader HEMS integration and to incorporate ISO 15118-20 to enable bidirectional charging.
The certification programme also is being established, starting with a few leading labs to validate compliance in relation with communication protocols defined in Mercury requirements.
The development of the EV charging requirements has involved more than 60 stakeholders including leading utilities from around the world as the Mercury initiative has gained momentum since its founding.
