The technology powering the EV charging industry has evolved so much over the last few years. As EVs become a natural part of the transportation ecosystem, we are witnessing a shift toward the standardization of chargers and the introduction of new industry protocols for interoperability. Now more than ever, it is particularly challenging to keep up with new developments and ensure that technologies comply with the latest regulations and standards.

Charge point operators and e-mobility service providers are facing challenges expanding internationally especially in dealing with different protocols, regulations, and multi-currencies, and integrating roaming capabilities into their networks.

EV Charging Industry Protocols and Standards

In this blog post, we’ve put together a list of the EV charging industry standards and protocols which deliver the flexibility that is needed for the entire electric vehicle market and will be a key enabler of future EV charging infrastructure developments.

(Image source: ElaadNL EV related protocol study v1.1)

 

OCPP – Open Charge Point Protocol 

The Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) is an application protocol for communication between electric vehicle charging stations and a central management system. It is an international, open-source, vendor-independent standard which is available for free.

The protocol was developed by the Open Charge Alliance (OCA) for the EV infrastructure market, and is considered the de-facto standard for charging infrastructure interoperability among charging equipment manufacturers, software and systems providers, charging network operators and research organizations. The protocol is a proven way to optimize the cost and minimize the risk of networked infrastructure investments. It provides flexibility for infrastructure operators to be EVSE-agnostic and allows easy access for EV drivers.

Many key players in the EV industry (charging station manufacturers, utilities, charge point operators and back-office software providers) contributed to the development of the protocol.

The latest version, OCPP 2.0.1, has a lot of new and improved features for device management, transaction handling, security, smart charging functionalities, support for display and messaging and the extensibility of OCPP.

OCPP 2.0.1 also offers the option to support plug and charge for electric vehicles supporting the ISO 15118 protocol.

OCPP 2.0.1 was featured in one of the Open Charge Alliance Webinars. watch it here.

 

OCPI – Open Charge Point Interface

The Open Charge Point Interface (OCPI) is designed for exchanging information about charge points between charge point operators and e-mobility service providers to enable scalable and automated EV roaming.

Supported use cases

• Charge point information
• Authorizing charging sessions
• Tariffs
• Reservation
• Roaming
• Handling registrations
• Smart charging

In more detail, it includes:

• Providing session information including location information
• Sending remote commands, such as reservation commands
• Providing charge detail records (CDRs) for billing purposes
• Authorizing charging sessions by exchanging tokens

OpenADR – Open Automated Demand Response

OpenADR is an open and secured foundation for interoperable information exchange to facilitate automated demand response.

It is typically used to send information and signals between distribution system operators (DSOs), utilities and energy management and control systems to balance energy demand during peak times.

OpenADR 2.0 enables standardization of demand response (DR) and distributed energy resources (DER) communications and automated DR/DER processes. It also simplifies customer energy management and eliminates stranded assets.

OSCP – Open Smart Charging Protocol 1.0

OSCP is an open protocol for communications between a charge point management system and an energy management system of a site owner or a DSO system.

The protocol can be used to communicate a real-time prediction of the local electricity grid capacity to the charge point operator. OSCP facilitates capacity-based smart charging of EVs.

(Image source: OCA)

OCHP – Open Clearing House Protocol  (e-clearing.net)

The Open Clearing House Protocol (OCHP) is an open-source protocol that enables communication between a charging management system and a clearing house system, in a simple and uniform way.

OCHP enables boundless electric vehicle charging across charging station networks (e-Roaming). Using OCHP, eMobility service providers can connect to EV charging operators and providers in order to provide access to their network.

OICP – Open InterCharge Protocol

OICP was developed by Hubject and is an implemented communication standard between e-mobility service provider (EMSP) and charge point operator (CPO) systems through the Hubject platform.

The protocol enables information exchange, which is based on contractual relationships between EMSPs and CPOs to Hubject, allowing them to offer reliable roaming to electric car drivers.

eMIP – eMobility Interoperation Protocol

eMIP, provided by GIREVE, enables roaming of charging services by providing a charge authorization and a data clearinghouse API and access to a comprehensive charging point database.

ISO 15118 –an international standard for bi-directional digital communications between electric vehicles and the charging station. ISO 15118 defines a  V2G  communication interface for bi-directional charging/discharging of electric vehicles.

ISO 15118 is a key enabler of the Plug & Charge capability, allowing EV drivers to insert the charge plug into the car, charge, and drive away when ready. This process is enabled by a digital certificate located in the vehicle, allowing it to communicate with the charging point management system (CPMS). This enables a seamless end-to-end charging process, which includes automatic authentication and billing, and avoids the need to use an RFID card, an app or to memorize PIN numbers.

The Driivz platform is hardware-agnostic and based on open industry standards, supporting over 500 charger models.

• Driivz was one of the first companies to be formally certified for OCPP 1.6 by the Open Charge Alliance (golden node) and to implement OCPP 1.6. Driivz is the golden node of choice for the upcoming OCPP 2.0.1 certification.
• Complies with ISO 15118 and OCPP 2.0.1 enabling vehicle-to-grid (V2G) communications.
• Driivz was one of the first vendors to provide full OCPP 2.0 and ISO15118 support (dating back to Nov 2018). In addition, Driivz was the first to integrate large networks in the USA (EVgo + ChargePoint).

• Industry-standard protocols – OCPI, OCHP, OICP (Hubject), eMIP, and more.
• Plug-n-charge – to improve the charging experience and avoid the need to use an RFID card.
• Autocharge – providing Plug & Charge like functionality based on vehicle MAC address.
• OpenADR certification
• Complies with Eichrecht, the German calibration law.
• Proprietary protocols – with tools to support and integrate any protocol.