Scalability in E-Mobility -An ElaadNL web talk with Patrick Rademakers and Edwin Witvoet-

40 participants attended the live webinar ‘Scalability in E-Mobility: Moving beyond the limitations of early architecture’

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Patrick and Edwin discussed the new architectural approach 2.0., which aims to replace the obsolete architecture 1.0 in the EV charging ecosystem. The new architectural model brings back flexibility, scalability, and control to every actor in the e-mobility market (suppliers, charging stations, customers, and third parties). It complies with existing standards but will allow us to break up the Charging Station Management Systems into separate independent services. How does it work? Let’s find out together below!

The webinar kicked off with Patrick Rademakers (EVEYO) presentation, who explained why Architecture 1.0 must be replaced with Architecture 2.0. Following, Edwin Witvoet (JIBE’s CEO) presented our solution built on Architecture 2.0, ChargeBroker gateway, which aggregates multiple services and systems in the EV charging ecosystem. The third part of the webinar was sprinkled with intuitive questions and fascinating answers.

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Transitioning from Architecture 1.0 to Architecture 2.0

In his presentation, Patrick emphasized the importance of getting back flexibility and scalability in the e-mobility market, especially when talking about the almighty control the Charge Point Management Systems (CPMS) have over the charging points and all actors involved. Instead of trying to maintain scalable this old model of operating, which allows connection to only one CPMS, Architecture 2.0 proposes to decentralize the power through a gateway, enabling connection to multiple systems concurrently.

Introducing OCPP Proxy instead of a single Charge Point Management System (CPMS) enables splitting up the management into separate, independent systems for operational management, roaming, navigation, and external services (smart charging, independent validation, and others), allowing unlimited flexibility in managing and choosing multiple systems.

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ChargeBroker – an independent EV charging gateway

The gateway proposed and developed by JIBE, addresses the issues of having all the control in one management system. Edwin Witvoet discussed our solution, ChargeBroker, the EV Charging Gateway that unifies systems, access, and data collection & analysis, while also giving back the power to all actors participating in the e-mobility ecosystem.

The solution was developed in 2018 and was already on the market for testing the following year. Its purpose is to enable vertical integration of multiple systems versus horizontal integration of systems, as was the case in the Architecture 1.0 model. Implementing Architecture 2.0, ChargeBroker acts as a gateway that unifies networks on all levels by giving access to services by choice, without duplication of services, and even to migrate chargers. As Edwin puts it, the existence of ChargeBroker is a necessity in the e-mobility market because “the best decision for tomorrow might be different from the best decision of today. The future requires flexibility and adaptability, which is why ChargeBroker was developed, to sustain the constant movement, transition, and evolution of the EV market” (Edwin Witvoet).

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The key concepts ChargeBroker rely on:

-       Multi-services: concurrently connecting to multiple services

-       Business logic: control to access, routing, grouping, and priority organization

-       Transformations: dealing with all kinds of hardware and OCPI versions by allowing to interact with the chargers, different versions, and different security levels of vendor and hardware to mix and match them

-       Partner Ecosystem: validate partners and services with their own innovation roadmap.

What does ChargeBroker offer?

-       Selecting and re-selecting of many CPOs

-       Support Legacy chargers

-       Dedicated platforms for installers, maintainers, managers, and support teams

-       Integration of EV charging solutions into existing ecosystems

-       The fuel stations deploying charging stations can also benefit from a gateway integrating all services

-       Unified data and alerts, keeping track and sharing communication data in real-time.

Q&A session

The web talk ended with an extensive question-and-answer session, which was very inspiring and insightful. The questions ranged from how Patrick and Edwin got into the e-mobility business, what are the main challenges of the market, how complicated is the migration toward Architecture 2.0, implementation time, problems in implementing, security issues, and the future of easy charging. Just to lay down a few helpful answers of the two speakers, here they are:

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Patrick: “The main challenge was that it takes people time to get used to new ideas.”

Edwin: “Lessons are learned. We had to understand, beyond the concept, what it meant to configure the device to enter flawless operation. We monitored it through data and analysis, and it involved a fun learning time for everybody.”

Edwin: “ChargeBroker respects and leaves the chain and the processes in place and enters the management system as a second or third party.”

Patrick: “Different countries and regions are in different maturing phases. In 5 to 10 years, The Netherlands, UK, and California will enter a mature stage. ChargeBroker will be a normal solution for these markets. The markets in the incipient phase are only concerned about getting the EV chargers out on the market rather than about the user experience. But by the time they mature, they will face the same problems that we, the developing countries, are already facing.”

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If these shifts in the e-mobility market made you curious, check out the entire webinar at https://lnkd.in/ek9d9ckT

Scale up with ChargeBroker to a concurrent, independent, and controlled e-mobility solution! For more information about ChargeBroker, check out www.chargebroker.com

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