CURRENT is a hardware agnostic Charge Point Management System, but what does that mean? It means CURRENT works with all electric vehicle (EV) chargers. CURRENT is a hardware agnostic system, that means it’ll work with any piece of hardware (relevant physical components) on the market. A hardware agnostic Charge Point Management System should work with your EV-charger, regardless of make or model. So, can you install CURRENT on every EV-charger in the world?
In theory, yes, CURRENT can work with all electric vehicle chargers on the market, but there are limitations. CURRENT works with any charger following the industry standard ‘OCPP’, but not all manufacturers follow the industry standard. There are a few reasons a handful of manufacturers have decided against following the OCPP industry standard. They boil down to wanting to lock in (read: keep prisoner) their customers, a lack of competence or a lack of experience. All these reasons are red flags, and you should think twice before investing in non-standard hardware. So, when we say that a Charge Point Management System is hardware agnostic, what we mean is that it will work with any industry standard EV-charger. But why doesn’t CURRENT support non-standard chargers?
The OCPP industry standard has a set of rules for communication and feature implementation. OCPP is to the EV charging world what English is to international business. To set up a connection between a charger and our system, they need to ‘talk’ to each other. Our system could connect to a charger that doesn’t follow the OCPP-standard, but it would be like talking to a person who only speaks his own, made up, language. You might wonder why you should care. You just want your charger to work.
Earlier, we mentioned why a manufacturer would deviate from the OCPP industry standard. They’re all bad for you as a customer. If the manufacturer of your EV-charger doesn’t follow the OCPP-standard, you won’t be able to access standard smart features and you won’t be able to expand your network at will; you’re at the mercy of the manufacturer. If you decide you want to switch systems, add chargers from another manufacturer or if the manufacturer you’re using goes bankrupt, you’ll have to throw away the old chargers and buy new ones. You don’t want that.
Buying and installing EV-chargers is an expensive investment, and you should be able to enjoy it for years to come. But if you buy non-standard hardware, you’re throwing money out the window. If you want your investment to have lasting value, make sure all system components, from software to hardware, follow the OCPP industry standard. Picking OCPP compliant components allows you the freedom to mix, match and replace chargers and software as you see fit. We want you to be free. If you pick CURRENT as your Charge Point Management System, you can use it for as long as you want, and if you ever find something better, you can switch. If you’ve chosen system components that don’t follow the industry standard, you’re stuck with it.
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