Standards & Implementation Guidance
Published, vendor-neutral guides for operators, integrators, and policymakers building charging infrastructure. These reflect open protocols and public standards — AfCA does not own OCPI, OCPP, or OSCP, and does not recommend individual companies.
Building and operating a CPMS
Core functions, uptime and observability, tariff and roaming engines, and the operational discipline a Charge Point Management System needs to run reliably at scale.
The driver app: consumer and fleet
What a world-class charging app has to get right for individual drivers, and where fleet requirements diverge — depot scheduling, cost allocation, and multi-driver access.
Selecting and installing charging hardware
Criteria for evaluating chargers before purchase, and the installation and commissioning steps that determine whether a site performs for the next ten years.
Testing OCPI and OCPP connectivity
A practical conformance testing sequence for both protocols, and the failure modes that pass a demo but break in production.
Integrating Chinese vehicles and devices
GB/T charging standards, NEV telematics reporting, and what interoperability with the Chinese market actually requires on top of OCPP/OCPI.
Glossary
Charging and interoperability terminology used across this guidance — vendor-neutral, standards-sourced definitions, not marketing language.
A
- AC charging
- Alternating Current charging — the slower charging type (typically up to ~22 kW) that uses the vehicle's onboard charger to convert AC from the grid to DC for the battery.
C
- CPMS
- Charge Point Management System — the backend software that monitors, controls, and bills charging stations, and coordinates with a CPO's operations.
- CPO
- Charge Point Operator — owns and operates physical charging stations.
D
- DC fast charging
- Direct Current fast charging — delivers DC power straight to the battery, bypassing the onboard charger, enabling much higher power and shorter charging times than AC.
- DSO
- Distribution System Operator — the utility responsible for the local electricity grid a charging site connects to.
E
- eMSP
- E-Mobility Service Provider (also written EMSP) — sells charging access to drivers, often across multiple CPO networks through roaming agreements.
- EVSE
- Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment — the formal term for the physical charging unit itself, covering both AC and DC hardware.
G
- GB/T
- The Chinese national charging connector and communication standard (Guobiao), distinct from CCS and Type 2 — relevant wherever Chinese-made vehicles or chargers are deployed.
I
- ISO 15118
- The international standard governing communication between an electric vehicle and a charging station, including Plug & Charge authentication.
K
- kW / kWh
- Kilowatt (kW) measures charging power — how fast energy is delivered. Kilowatt-hour (kWh) measures energy itself — how much a battery holds or a session delivers.
O
- OCPI
- Open Charge Point Interface — the protocol for roaming between CPOs and eMSPs, letting a driver charge on a network they don't hold an account with. Owned and maintained by the EVRoaming Foundation.
- OCPP
- Open Charge Point Protocol — the protocol between a physical charger and its CPMS, covering status reporting, remote control, and firmware updates. Owned by the Open Charge Alliance.
- OICP
- Open InterCharge Protocol — an alternative roaming protocol to OCPI, notably used by Hubject.
- OSCP
- Open Smart Charging Protocol — coordinates charging with local grid capacity constraints, such as a site's connection limit. Owned by the Open Charge Alliance.
P
- Plug & Charge
- An ISO 15118 capability that authenticates and starts a charging session automatically when the cable is plugged in, with no app, card, or RFID tap required.
R
- Roaming
- The arrangement that lets a driver charge on a network they don't hold a direct account with, settled between the CPO and the driver's eMSP — the function OCPI and OICP exist to standardise.
S
- SLA
- Service Level Agreement — a contracted commitment to a measurable operating standard, most often charger uptime, in a CPO or CPMS vendor relationship.
T
- Tariff
- The pricing structure applied to a charging session — commonly per-kWh, per-minute, a flat session fee, or a blend of these.
U
- Uptime
- The share of time a charger is available and working, the headline reliability metric operators and this Alliance track — and the opposite of the broken-charger problem interoperability guidance exists to reduce.