Why is OCPP so confusing?
When I first starting doing EV Charging stuff over 4 years ago I heard about Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) and assumed it was a standard that all chargers met and all Charger Management Software (CMS) met and as long as EV charging hardware was OCPP and EV charging software was OCPP then it would all easily work together and BOY WAS I WRONG.
Little did I know that when vendors said they were OCPP they meant "OCPP" (finger quotes, winks, etc).
For instance, the now defunct Enel X JuiceBox showed on the spec sheet that they were OCPP 1.6 compliant (see below at the very bottom):
So when the younger me saw this I assumed: "Great, any CMS that's OCPP 1.6 compliant can work with JuiceBox" but as we can see from this post it's just not that easy (I'm using the comment section on that post as a repository of information for transitioning JuiceBox to another network).
The founder and CEO of Wevo Energy Teddy Flatau has some great insights on this topic and introduced me to the concept of "openwashing" and it's a great word to describe the feeling of what the hell are we even doing here?
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And you can compare the image above against the list I complied of CMS providers and there are some on the image below that aren't on the image above.
Another example further confusing things is a point I brought up to Teddy regarding EV Connect (who we use and like as a CMS provider for our CPO station here):
But EV Connect has a whole web page dedicated to explaining OCPP! So...why isn't EV Connect on the Open Charge Alliance list? (Please answer in comments)
And don't even get me started on OCPP 1.6 vs. OCPP 2.0.1 and how all NEVI chargers have to be 2.0.1 by now and I'm not even sure that's happening.
Here's my main question: As someone who sells EV Charging solutions to people who install them at their property, how am I supposed to communicate what OCPP means on a spec sheet? Our customers are not EV Charging experts and don't have time to understand the nuances of "standard compliance" cause BORING! So what does OCPP even mean from an end customer's concern?
Technologist connecting people, technology and opportunity. Thrives in office setting and in the field.
10 小时前No need to overthink Chris Kaiser :). Did PV inverter manufacturers ever communicate what Modbus or SunSpec was?
CEO/CTO | EcoSec Works | Forbes | EVC | Cybersecurity | AI Tech Leader
1 周At EcoSec Works we have built agentic AI software to analyze OCPP streams. With low-end chargers, you may learn an EV Charger is in fault, but not know the reason. With more expensive fast chargers, smarter error codes can be embedded in OCPP messages. Many OCPP messages have mis-spellings or poor English grammar, so messages need to be cleaned and normalized before analysis. Vendors often use different terms for things. OCPP is messy. The key is to derive operational KPIs that you can use to see if charger behavior is becoming anomalous. Communications behavior, energy behavior, cable-connection behavior, and so forth. I like the work that the ChargeX Consortium is doing to standardize on error codes that show up in OCPP messages.
OCPP is more complex than it seems. On spec sheets, focus on key benefits: Flexibility: potential to switch software without hardware changes Interoperability: designed to work with various systems Future-proofing: standardized features and updates
EV Charging & E-Mobility Disruptor | VP of Engineering at Lynkwell
3 周I'm a little late to the party, but if you only use OCPP certification as your interoperability checkmark, it is going to be a doozy as you scale your network. Take it from one of the largest network operators in the Northeast (stats from Eco-Movement ). Interoperability is a tiny piece of a much larger puzzle, and OCPP certification should be considered just a start. It misses vital things like modem reliability, power electronics durability, or the ease of repairing a charging station. That's why we battle-test each station model at our charging laboratory in NY at Lynkwell. We get critical insights by exposing the chargers to the elements, our master electricians about serviceability, and hardware engineers about electrical design. And even then, that is still just a start... Once a station is deployed, our BI system takes over, allowing our team to analyze things like MTBF (mean time between failures/faults), connectivity uptime (to signal modem reliability), and first charge success ratio (to signal driver confusion). This all then feeds back into a collaborative effort with each of our hardware partners to give them the data they need to push the industry forward.
Electrification Strategist - Business Developer - CRM Nerd ??
3 周Every OCPP Software has a license expiration. OCPP hardware / Software is simply the ability for integration. When your clients purchase an OCPP unit - they have the flexibility of changing software on that unit, after a license expires. a proprietary solution, like Tesla for eg. - your option when the software license expires is to resign or remove the unit and go with OCPP - if you’re unhappy with the unit or your monthly pricing goes up, your options are limited.