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Guide · OCPI
Roaming over OCPI, explained.
How charging networks let each other’s drivers charge: the roles, the two ways networks connect, the data that travels between them, and how roaming works on ChargeIT.
Roaming is what lets your drivers charge further and other networks’ drivers charge with you. Here is how it works.
What OCPI is
The Open Charge Point Interface is an open protocol maintained by the EVRoaming Foundation. It connects the systems of charging networks, so that a driver of one network can charge at the stations of another and both sides are settled correctly.
Where OCPP connects a charger to its central system, OCPI connects one network’s platform to another’s.
Who does what
- Charge point operator (CPO): runs the chargers. It publishes its stations and prices, and reports the sessions that partners’ drivers have at them.
- eMobility service provider (eMSP): has the drivers. It tells partners which of its drivers may charge, receives their sessions and bills them.
One business can be both. On ChargeIT, any customer that runs as a CPO or an eMSP gets roaming in its console, whether it runs directly on ChargeIT or under its own brand.
Hubs and peer-to-peer
- Roaming hubs: one connection to a hub reaches every network connected to it.
- Peer-to-peer: a direct OCPI link between two partners.
ChargeIT uses both. It holds the roaming agreements and the OCPI connections, so its customers roam under ChargeIT’s roaming identity without negotiating hub contracts of their own.
What travels over OCPI
OCPI 2.2.1 is organised in modules. Each carries one kind of information between partners.
| Module | What it carries |
|---|---|
| Credentials | The handshake: how two partners connect and identify each other |
| Locations | Stations, their connectors and their live status |
| Tariffs | Prices per connector |
| Tokens | Which drivers may charge |
| Commands | Remote start and stop |
| Sessions | Live progress of a charge |
| CDRs | Charge detail records: the billable record of a finished session |
A roaming session, step by step
A partner’s driver charges at your station:
- The driver starts with their own app or card, and the partner’s token is checked.
- The session reaches ChargeIT over OCPI and is followed live.
- When it ends, the CDR is created and priced with your tariff for that connector.
- It is settled in the billing console under roaming settlement for the month, and shows in the roaming report.
In the other direction, your drivers start sessions on partner networks, and those sessions are priced, billed and settled like any other.
Roaming on ChargeIT
- OCPI 2.2.1, module by module, so partners connect the same way they connect to everyone else.
- Roaming as CPO, as eMSP, or both.
- No hub contracts of your own: you roam under ChargeIT’s roaming identity and agreements.
- Roaming money lands in the same ledger as everything else, with its own roaming report.
Roam without the paperwork.
Tell us whether you want to roam as CPO, eMSP or both, and we’ll show you how it is set up.
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