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Tag: OCPP

OCPP Standard ionity emobility

Why the OCPP standard is so important

Written by akrause on . Posted in Public Transport.

Interfaces between vehicle, charging station and backend ensure further development of charging infrastructure.

When charging electric cars, several factors are important to ensure a fast and safe charging process. This must also fit seamlessly into the local energy supply. 

The Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) is the common language between charging stations and their management systems. It has become the de facto standard for electric car charging. When an electric car starts its charging process. A comprehensive data transfer begins between the charging point and the CPO/MSP backend system connected to it. User data can be transmitted to the contract partner as billing data for the charging current. The time frame and the amount of energy consumed for the respective charging process are also transferred.  

Vendor-neutral, license-free – the obvious solution for reliable and efficient management and control of the various tasks mentioned above. As a quality feature, the international partnership of over 160 electric mobility companies, Open Charge Alliance (OCA), added a certificate in 2019. This enables interested parties to immediately recognize whether a charging station is compatible with OCPP. CarMedialab is also a member of OCA. Currently, almost all leading manufacturers are looking to equip their charging stations with OCPP-compatible technology.  

What are the advantages of OCPP?
OCPP has a number of advantages over other standards and protocols. For example, charging stations can fully communicate with any OCPP-compliant CPO/MSC backend system, with data well protected. In this way, customers get a future-proof and cost-effective charging infrastructure. It can also be combined with additional software and hardware components from different manufacturers at any time. 

Up-to-dateness for use of all functionalities
It is important that the charging stations always use the latest version of the Open Charge Point protocol. This means that the core includes all services such as firmware management, smart charging, reservation, management of a local authorization list and remote triggering. All of this is provided with the current OCPP, which will be converted into an ISO standard in the future. 

All info about our software stack OCPP can be found here.

Get the Update: ISO 15118:20

Written by akrause on . Posted in Public Transport.

A new version is released and will be available from CarMedialab this summer

ISO 15118:20 is an important communication standard that offers many new possibilities for electric vehicles.

This can be divided into four major functionality sections: 

  1. AC for alternating current charging
  2. DC for direct current charging
  3. wireless power transfer (WPT) for inductive charging and
  4. Automatic Connecting Device Pantograph for charging communication via pantograph charging infrastructure

Bidirectional charging represents a sought-after technical advancement in the new standard. It enables both the charging of a vehicle and the feeding of energy back into the grid. 

software stack charging
The new software is soon available for charging stations

The CarMedialab release is already available from the end of June. Ask now!

Read more about ISO 15118 here:

https://www.carmedialab.com/en/products/smart-charging/software-stack-iso-15118/

Here you can find all information:

https://www.iso.org/standard/77845.html

Woman charging a electric car at a charging station

OCPP compliance for EV charging stations

Written by admin on . Posted in Public Transport.

By 2030, major countries like Germany and Great Britain will have set sales target for how many electric vehicles (EV) are sold and even limiting the number of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles sold. To reach these targets, governments are incentivizing the public to purchase electric cars by providing subsidies such as tax credits to consumers.

Charging an electric car at a charging station, with the use of OCPP
Charging an electric car at a charging station, with the use of OCPP

The major concern of drivers, who were surveyed about their concerns with EVs, is that there is a limited number of available public charging stations accessible on their route of travel. Nobody wants to be stranded in the middle of nowhere, leaving them with no other option than being towed away. The distance between EV charging stations are still far apart, and the average range of EVs are still less than that of ICE vehicles. Thus, the electrification of the roadway infrastructure affects the decision of choosing between an EV and ICE vehicle directly.

Overcoming this issue will be a matter of installing more EV charging stations. Governments are encouraging companies to install charging stations on site for their employees to charge their cars while at work. They subsidize the purchase so the cost is as low as possible for the new buyer of an electric car.

This potential increase in EV sales will motivate more charging station manufacturers to enter the market. So how do you keep your position in the market and how do you make sure that you’re not being overtaken by a newcomer?

Compliance is key
When EV charging stations become more ubiquitous, the main challenge will be to avoid too many overlapping standards. Different types of charge management systems will limit the number of electric vehicles that can be served by each supplier. This will make the infrastructure even more complex as different types of charging points need to be setup.

If the charge management system are all run on OCPP-compliant software, Smart charging according to the ISO 15 118 standard standard will provide much more flexibility, thus different charging stations can be setup in different locations giving the driver a sense of security, since they will always be able to charge their vehicle.

Therefore, it’s important as a manufacturer to make sure that their charge management system as well as the charging points are OCPP compliant. That way we make smart charging accessible to everyone and we can help governments reach their targets even earlier than 2030.

Let’s do this!

EV Charging Infrastructure 2021 in Berlin

Written by admin on . Posted in Public Transport.

It has been inspiring days at EV Charging Infrastructure 2021 in Berlin, where leading automotive manufacturers met with developers, network operators and decision makers to explore the needs of a new generation of electric vehicles.

Of particular interest was the presentation by Marc Gebert, NXP Semiconductors. He vividly explained the challenges and smart digital solutions for the development of charging stations for electric vehicles. We are very proud that Marc Gebert reported on the productive cooperation with CarMedialab and are already looking forward to future projects. 

Marc Gebert, NXP Semiconductors

alpitronic charge station

Highend Superfast Charging Stations – Easy to Integrate

Written by admin on . Posted in Public Transport.

Alpitronic, together with CarMedialab, are running  OCPP-Software  in their highend super fast charging station product line Hypercharge .

By that, Alpitronics customers benefit from all the successful OCPP integration projects CarMedialab has completed with vendors ranging from low end AC wallboxes up to highend DC superfast charging stations and pantographs. Integration risk and costs go down, customer satisfaction up!

Going forward collaboration is expected to continue between the two companies as they work together on newer versions of OCPP.

alpitronic charge station

About  Alpitronic
Alpitronic offers innovative, cost-efficient products for superfast charging. The team of power electronics specialists has many years’ experience ramping up and rolling out compact, highly available inverter systems with up to 500 kW power output. And the trusted relationships they maintain with key automakers enable them to deliver bespoke products tailored for a perfect fit.

About CarMedialab
CarMedialab is a pioneer in Smart Charging. More than 10 years ago the company contributed to the first development of a powerline based smart charge communication protocol. Today, the company not only supplies software stacks for ISO15118  and  OCPP to be integrated into charging stations – with its own or 3rd party controllers. Furthermore, with MOBILEcharge CarMedialab provides a charge management system dedicated to public transportation.

open charge alliance

CarMedialab joins the Open Charge Alliance

Written by admin on . Posted in Public Transport.

The Open Charge Alliance (OCA) is an industry alliance formed to further develop OCPP to lead open and flexible EV networks worldwide.

The OCA focuses on the development of the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) and the Open Smart Charging Protocol (OSCP) in order to optimize costs and risks of investments in network infrastructures.

As a member of the OCA, CarMedialab has the opportunity to help shape current and future versions of the OCPP to best meet market requirements. OCA uses the knowledge and experience of its members to provide a cost-effective, interoperable and universal infrastructure for charging EVs.

open charge alliance

More information about the OCA, its objectives and membership can be found at https://www.openchargealliance.org/.