Open Charge Point Protocol for Electric Vehicles: What You Should Know
It’s rare that something is entirely beneficial. Usually, new technology comes with costs that deter people from adopting it. But in the case of Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP), we have a win-win. It makes it easy to set up large networks of charging stations and easy for charging station owners to adapt if a provider goes out of business or there’s an emergency, and it could decrease prices across the board.
What Is OCPP?
OCPP is an application protocol that allows communication between electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and their central management system. Put simply, an application protocol is a structure that allows vastly different programs to interact with each other — like cell phones and your smart fridge, or your Bluetooth speaker and your laptop. Think of it like a translation program — it translates messages from one device or program into a form that a different one will understand and be able to work with.
Importance of OCPP
There are over 700 programming languages. And within each device you could be programming for, there could be proprietary restrictions, quirks of individual companies and programmers, and hardware-specific inputs that quickly cause the number of variations to balloon out of control. Think about it like a worldwide conference of various professionals. Between the different languages, the different dialects of each language and the words specific to each profession, it could feel like being at the Tower of Babel.
It’s worse with computers. Humans can infer and interpret meaning. Computers and programs need specific instructions to do what we want them to do. Their tasks may seem simple on the surface, but there’s a lot of complexity underneath. Application protocols are what allow your iPhone to connect to play Pandora through your Sony Bluetooth speaker just as easily as your friend’s Android can play Spotify through their JBL headphones. Application protocols provide common ground.
How Does This Relate to EV Charging?
EV charging areas are complex systems that, especially outside of the U.S., often come in two parts: the charging station itself and the central management system that controls voltage, output and any number of other factors depending upon the system. These two parts could be made by various vendors, some of which may provide only the station or the management system.
In order for charging stations to function alongside management systems from different vendors, you need an application protocol that translates whatever proprietary tools each program uses into a form the others can understand. That is the goal of OCPPl: to provide a way for different EV charging stations to communicate with different central management systems.
What About OCPP, Then?
OCPP is a project of ElaadNL in the Netherlands. The original version was written by Joury de Reuver and Frank Buve around 2013. Since then, it has become one of the gold standards for EV charging station application protocols. Its wide adoption may have something to do with both its high quality and the fact that it’s free to use, meaning that adopting it incurs very little additional overhead.
In fact, as of 2019, either OCPP or another similar application protocol is required in the UK for new charge points.
Benefits of OCPP
As mentioned, OCPP allows charging stations to communicate with management systems from different vendors. While this seems like a small detail, the consequences for consumers and charging station owners are huge.
On a surface level, it means that owners of charging stations are no longer at the mercy of their providers. They can mix and match charging stations and management systems as needed, giving them choice and flexibility and encouraging manufacturers and network providers to compete on elements that actually count for their users — price, features, quality and service. This flexibility isn’t just good from a consumer angle; it also means that if a vendor goes out of business or an emergency takes some stations out of commission, charging station owners can quickly pivot and adapt without worrying about compatibility.
The biggest benefits are seen when you begin to scale things up. The ability to mix and match according to circumstances, knowing that OCPP will ensure compatibility, makes it much easier for providers to create large-scale, visible charging networks. After all, they only need to worry about one operating system. The rest they can piece together as they need.
Think about it like the mortar that holds the bricks of a house together. With it, you can expand as needed because this single component allows the rest to fit together with ease.
A Recap
OCPP is a program that greatly increases compatibility between different charging stations and their central management systems. The results, for charging station owners, include the following:
Increased flexibility
Better pricing, features, quality and service
Ability to mix and match stations, and quickly pivot if emergencies or outages require you to quickly get a new station
Ability to adapt if a provider goes out of business
Increased ease of setting up large-scale, visible networks
Embracing OCPP
The only real downsides are to some U.S. providers who had used the lack of compatibility to force customers to use both their management system and their charging stations or nothing at all. But for the rest of us, it seems like there’s little reason not to adopt OCPP. That’s one of the reasons that if you’re looking for charging infrastructure, you should consider EV Connect. After all, we’re an open network solution!
Sources
Open Charge Alliance - About Us
OSI Model - Application Layer