OCPP Compatibility between a Central System and Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

Abstract: Nowadays, the growing CO2 emissions is one of the main international issues. The world is becoming aware that the current climate issues start being critic and that something has to be done. In parallel, Earth starts running out of fossil fuels so alternative energies and alternative ways of producing energy have to be found. Driving electric vehicles would reduce the CO2 emissions and the use of fossil fuels. Of course, it would not make it possible to solve all the current issues but it could be part of a global solution. Over the past few years, the production of electric vehicle has grown faster and faster and consequently so did the production of electric vehicle charging stations. International and European standards have been set for electric vehicles and electrical vehicle charging stations. Besides, the growing number of charging stations entails a need of supervision. Supervision makes it possible for instance to control the charging stations remotely or to manage the transaction and the energy transmissions. Given the large number of charging station constructors and supervision system suppliers, the need of a common communication protocol was imperative. The Open Charge Alliance (OCA) has developed a standard communication protocol named Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP). This protocol is still in development but it enables the different actors to have a common communication protocol and so to possibly interconnect their systems. Given OCPP is still under construction, the communication between a charging station and a supervision system is not trivial and some adjustments usually have to be made. The aim of this Thesis is to work on the compatibility between a supervision system and several charging stations from different constructors.