A new project for Cross-Border Charging : on July 4th, GIREVE joined the event EVRoaming4EU organised by NKL (Nationaal Kennisplatform Laadinfrastructuur, a Netherlands platform for knowledge exchange around EV Charging), for Smart Charging and Cross-Border issues.
The event at the COBRA Museum in Amstelveen started with speeches about EV-roaming in Europe and the need for partnerships, to make it easier for EV drivers to travel : as explained in the speeches, if you go on a trip today from the Netherlands to Poland, you may need 7 different charging cards. When traveling to Portugal you may need as many as 12!
The challenge is to get different partners to work together and open their network. One of the key subjects to open the network is the use and development of the IT inter-system communication protocol called OCPI (Open Charge Point Interface). The OCPI allows for a scalable, automated roaming setup between Charge Point Operators and e-Mobility Service Providers. It supports authorisation, charge point information exchange or charge detail record making roaming possible.
Experts debate roaming in a roundtable discussion
During the launch meeting of EVRoaming4EU, several round tables allowed people to exchange on subjects linked to e-mobility such as SmartCharging and Roaming. Jean-Marc Rives, GIREVE’s CTO, joined the “EV-Roaming Experts” group. Questions about roaming’s use and relevancy were tackled, as well as contractual and operational issues between different players, IT topologies and the impact of the ISO-15-118 norm implementation. Those exchanges were very enriching and helped the audience better understand the stakes of this complex subject.
About EVRoaming4EU
This NKL project is a collaborative partnership between four countries (Denmark, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands) to facilitate roaming services and provide transparent information about charging in Europe through the use of the open independent OCPI protocol. Local and international partners, suppliers and EV drivers are welcome to contribute to the project and share knowledge and experiences. The project’s ultimate goal is to enable all EV drivers to charge hassle-free anywhere in the EU.