An OCPP Backoffice, also referred to as OCPP "Backend", "Platform", or "CSMS" (Charge Station Management System) or "CPMS" (Charge Point Management System), is a database in which you can see your chargers and check how they're doing.
Plugchoice is such an OCPP backoffice, free for every OCPP charger you connect, whatever the brand. The portal and the app show each charger with its sessions and its settings. Plugchoice is also a free OCPP proxy where the charger connects once to Plugchoice, Plugchoice relays its OCPP traffic to one or more other backoffices at the same time, adding or removing a backoffice is a toggle so the charger is never reconfigured, switching later does not take the charger offline, and messages are buffered while a connected backoffice is down.
What can I do with an OCPP Backend?
An OCPP Backoffice is not necessary to charge your car or operate your EV charger, but it's extremely useful and there is a large chance your installer and manufacturer of the EV charger will be using a backoffice on your charger for diagnostics and technical support.
An OCPP backoffice can help you achieve the following:
- Get insights in your charging transactions, when they took place and how much kWh was delivered to your car.
- Be reimbursed for the used electricity, for instance by accepting and billing public charging cards presented at your charging station or even by presenting your own charging card and letting your business reimburse you for your electricity usage at home.
- Always have access to your charger's data, it's (error) status, and be able to download its Diagnostics which is a local file you can retrieve over OCPP to check the logs, transactions and a whole bunch of other locally stored data on your charger.
- Control your charger's maximum power output and start and stop charging sessions using different RFID UID tag numbers to bill different accounts.
- In the case of Plugchoice, our OCPP Backoffice is not just useable from the front-end but also via Rest API and MQTT, which means you can link your charger to other products using those interfaces without ever touching the backend itself.
Which OCPP Backoffice should I choose for my EV Charger?
So this really comes down to what you want to use the backoffice for. Let's start off with the low hanging fruit, and that is of course Plugchoice itself. Plugchoice offers a host of features and just adding your charger to our backoffice is completely free. You can also connect to any other backoffice via ours for free. This is called an "OCPP Proxy" or "OCPP Broker". It allows you to stay flexible and choose to connect or disconnect your chargers depending on what you need.
So, back to the question, which Backoffice should you choose? Well, Plugchoice does a lot but it is limited in the sense that you cannot do automatic billing with our backoffice. For this, you can connect to any other backoffice you like. There are 3 main categories to think about:
- Are you charging at home and you want to be reimbursed for your own electricity?
- Must your charger be useable by visitors who are using their normal charging card that they also use outdoors?
- Do you want your charger to be visible on public charging maps?
Depending on these factors, you may choose the backoffice that is right for you.
Can you use a second backoffice next to your current one
Yes, with Plugchoice as a free OCPP proxy in between. The charger connects once to Plugchoice, and Plugchoice relays its OCPP traffic to your current backoffice and to a second one at the same time, for example one for billing and one for data. Each backoffice is switched on or off with a toggle in the portal, the charger is never reconfigured, and messages are buffered while a connected backoffice is down.
