Understanding OCPP: Advantages in EV Charging Stations

This page explains the OCPP protocol and its benefits in Electric Vehicle Charging Stations (EVCS). There are three main types of networks used in charging stations for electric vehicles: non-networked, closed networks, and open networks.

• Non-networked stations: These are not connected to any network.
• Closed networks: These use proprietary protocols for communication between the charging station and the server. Owners of charging stations are locked into using these proprietary services and cannot use open standard-based EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment).
• Open networks: These allow owners of charging stations to use multiple open networks. Owners can use different open standards-based networking equipment on the same hardware without any upgrades.

Let’s delve into the basics of the OCPP Protocol.

What is OCPP (Open Charge Point Protocol)?

Introduction: OCPP was developed to create an open application protocol that allows EV charging stations and CMS (Central Management Systems) from different manufacturers to communicate with each other.

• OCPP stands for Open Charge Point Protocol.
• OCPP is a protocol that facilitates communication between charging stations and network management systems. An EV charging network allows owners to communicate with their charging stations and charging stations to communicate with the power grid.

The OCPP and OSCP (Open Smart Charging Protocol) were developed by OCA (Open Charge Alliance), a global consortium of public and private EV (Electric Vehicle) infrastructure leaders.

Figure depicts entire EV charging system. As shown OCPP is used between EVSE (i.e. Charging Station) and central system. ISO 15118 and IEC 61851 is used between EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment) and EV (Electric Vehicle).

OCPP is a SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) based protocol.

As we know, HTTP sits on top of TCP/IP, while SOAP sits on top of HTTP. Hence, SOAP uses XML style encoding for messages which are sent over HTTP, FTP, or SMTP. Refer to SOAP vs HTTP for more information on SOAP over HTTP.

Here’s a list of released OCPP (Open Charge Point Protocol) versions:

• OCPP 1.5 released in 2013
• OCPP 1.6 released in 2015
• OCPP 2.0 released in 2018

Benefits or Advantages of OCPP (Open Charge Point Protocol)

Here are the benefits of using OCPP:

• Flexibility: Open standards-based protocols like OCPP offer flexibility and choice. It allows users to choose from different hardware and software options, matching charging hardware with an NMS (Network Management System) that suits their needs.
• Choice: OCPP compliant charging stations put the choice of charging network provider in the users’ hands.
• Interoperability: Open networks enable interoperability between equipment from different manufacturers. OCPP is a de-facto network protocol throughout Europe and is used in 78 countries on every continent.
• Scalability: It’s easy to change equipment and scale the system as needed. This allows owners to optimize costs and reduce the risk of large, upfront investments.
• Plug and Play: Owners can easily add new options and capabilities to existing chargers.
• New Features: OCPP 2.0 includes new features such as extended security, displays for tariffs and costs, and monitoring for operators.

Conclusion

To fully understand the benefits of OCPP, it’s important to understand the electric vehicle charging system, where OCPP is widely used across the globe.

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