Skip to main content

First EU-US Interoperability Centre opens

The first of the twin centres designed to promote common standards in electric mobility and smart grids on both sides of the Atlantic has been inaugurated at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago. The second Centre will be opened in the EU, at the JRC sites in Petten, The Netherlands and Ispra, Italy, in 2014. The launch follows eighteen months of dedicated work following the letter of intent for closer co-operation, signed by the JRC, the European Commission's in-hous
July 22, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
The first of the twin centres designed to promote common standards in electric mobility and smart grids on both sides of the Atlantic has been inaugurated at the 5631 US Department of Energy’s (DOE) 5041 Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago. The second Centre will be opened in the EU, at the JRC sites in Petten, The Netherlands and Ispra, Italy, in 2014.

The launch follows eighteen months of dedicated work following the letter of intent for closer co-operation, signed by the JRC, the 1690 European Commission's in-house science service, and the DOE in 2011.

In the light of the EU-US negotiations on a free trade agreement, aiming to lower tariffs and harmonise standards, the work of the Interoperability Centres will be particularly pertinent in the energy and transport sectors.

Standardisation in this field will benefit the European energy landscape while converging transatlantic technical regulations could lead the way to global standards. The trade and investment agreement currently negotiated by the EU and the US known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), aims to remove tariffs and differences in technical regulations, standards and certifications which cost time and money to companies and consumers. In the context of the importance of this agreement for converging standards across the Atlantic, the work of the twin Interoperability Centres will play a scene-setting role for technology harmonisation in the two biggest world economies.

In an additional development relevant to EU-US co-operation in standardisation, the JRC and the US National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) have agreed to boost their co-operation in standards and measurements to ten different areas, including energy and transport.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • New chairman and fresh thinking at Ertico
    October 6, 2015
    Cees de Wijs, who was elected Chairman of Ertico ITS Europe in June, puts the Partnership and this ITS World Congress in context.
  • European Commission proposal to increase research and investment in Europe’s transportation sector
    September 24, 2012
    The EU is launching a new plan, Research and Innovation for Europe’s Future Mobility, that aims to develop a long-term policy strategy that among other goals, is to reduce road casualties to almost zero and greenhouse gas emission from the transport sector by 60 per cent in 2050. The plan doesn’t propose any new EU funding or regulations but instead proposes an initiative to meet with Member States and other relevant stakeholder to discuss policy priorities and objectives. Speaking about the plan, Vice Pres
  • ITS America publishes connected vehicle guidance
    April 22, 2015
    Guidance on the likely impact of multipath communications on connected vehicle development has been published by ITS America. ITS America’s Connected Vehicle Technical Insight looks at the challenges and opportunities wireless interoperability could provide in vehicle applications. In particular the 22-page document examines the processes by which data can be transferred from one vehicle to another (V2V), or between a vehicle and the infrastructure (V2I).
  • Progress towards a pan-European cooperative infrastructure
    July 17, 2012
    Kallistratos Dionelis, General Secretary of ASECAP, makes the case for a lightly regulated, staged progression towards a pan-European cooperative infrastructure environment, the achievement of which should look to engender cooperation between the public and private sectors. Such an approach, he says, is the only real path to success.