Open Charge Point Protocol – OCPP 1.6 already offers smart charging feature; time, cost, source and load based optimizations are already possible. Then, what is it new in OCPP 2.0.1? and why is OCPP 2.0 smart charging often referred along with the smart charging functionality of ISO 15118?
This post aims to clarify these questions in simple words as well a bit detailed with relevant OCPP messages information for developers.
Smart charging in OCPP 1.6
When it comes to smart charging in OCPP 1.6, the entire implementation is based on charging profiles. A single profile describes time intervals with power/current limits. For instance, an OCPP smart charging profile can define that between 17:00 and 21:00 , the user can charge at a max speed of 5kW, and between 21:00 and 07:00 maximum energy is 22kW.
Profiles can be stacked and merged in order to build complex profiles. There are three types of charging profiles:
- ChargePointMaxProfile - profile of whole charge point
- TxDefaultProfile - default profile for a transaction (can be for whole charge point or for specific connector)
- TxProfile - profile for a single transaction, deleted once a transaction is finished.
The second essential concept is a type of smart charging. There are three types of smart charging setup supported in OCPP 1.6:
- internal load balancing
- central smart charging
- local smart charging