The importance of open protocols 

If all market players make use of the same protocol, then total costs will drop. And by making use of each other’s experience, new developments will be executed more quickly and adopted by other parties. 

Flexibility is another gain in this open approach; new features and improvements can be added relatively easily through the openness of the protocol. The legibility makes it easy to discuss improvements / change requests and determine the impact it has on implementation (costs). Also the binding to XML/SOAP and JSON helps in this flexibility. Flexibility will be needed in the coming years considering the maturity of the EV developments. 

Open charge point protocol

The goal for Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) is to offer a uniform solution for the method of communication between charge point and central system. With this protocol it is possible to connect any central system with any charge point, regardless of the vendor. A uniform standard prevents all kinds of coordination problems and  is therefore an advantage for the whole electric vehicle market. 

Open Smart Charging Protocol 

The basic function of the Open Smart Charging Protocol (OSCP) is to communicate physical net capacity from the DSO (or site owner) to the back-office of the charge spot operator. The protocol can be used to communicate a 24 hour prediction of the local available capacity to the Charge Spot Operator. The Service Provider will fit the charging profiles of the electrical vehicles within the boundaries of the available capacity.