OCPI – the universal communication standard for CPOs
What is OCPI anyway?
OCPI is an abbreviation for Open Charge Point Interface. The name says it all. However, this does not mean that the charging points themselves pass on information, but rather that charging point operators share information with e-mobility service providers. In other words, OCPI is a communication standard based on APIs – mechanisms that enable two software components to communicate with each other using standardized definitions and protocols.
Why is the charging station interface open?
Because OCPI is open to many different participants. This means that OCPI enables simple and automated collaboration between charging station operators and other providers of e-mobility services.
What does that mean?
OCPI can help with this, for example:
- Authorising charging processes
- Exchanging information about charging stations and their use
- Submitting charging reports
- Processing intelligent charging commands
What is so practical about OCPI?
OCPI enables flexible communication between the different parties, which can be expanded as required. Overall, this makes charging electric vehicles more efficient.
- OCPI is AFIR-compliant: OCPI supports the Open Charge Metering Format, or OCMF for short. This means that electricity is measured in a standardized way. As a result, the correctness and thus the conformity of the transmitted data with the calibration office is guaranteed.
- OCPI is tried & tested and manufacturer-independent: With OCPI, different manufacturers can link their software with each other. Some proprietary solutions require additional programming effort. With the OCPI solution, this is not a problem because the connection is almost always identical. To put it simply: OCPI is an interface “language” that is “spoken” by many programmes, making it easy to understand and ready for use in many applications.
Which versions are in circulation?
- Version 2.1.1 is the original version of the communication standard
- Version 2.2.1 is already partially implemented
- Version 3.0 is currently not yet very widespread
How do we use OCPI in direct payment for e-mobility?
The diagram illustrates where FINETELLIGENCE‘s E-nfinity Solution connects and exactly which features it covers. The OCPI interface – or a proprietary interface in its place – connects the charge point management system, or CPMS for short, of a CPO with our multi-protocol router, or MPR for short. This means that our software knows how much an electric vehicle has already charged and, in combination with the Enterprise Management Portal (EMP), can create a receipt and process the payment.
How does OCPI work?
OCPI has many modules – for example, location, sessions or tariffs. Depending on the module, different data is transmitted and queried. In the so-called command module, these are classically the commands to the charging station: “Start charging” and “Stop charging”.
Among this multitude of modules, some are also optional for direct payment. FINETELLIGENCE therefore does not necessarily require the complete OCPI interface. To correctly display the tariffs for charged electricity, for example, we need master data and the respective session of the charging process at the respective location. This allows us to access information about the charging process, the vehicle’s state of charge, and the charging power and to process the payment correctly.
The great thing about OCPI is that all this information can be communicated via a single interface.