Which EV chargers can be taken over by a new operator, and which are locked?
The dividing line is OCPP. It is the open standard that lets a charger communicate with any management platform. A charger that supports it can be pointed at a new platform by changing its server settings, and the new operator can then see it, control it and bill through it. A charger that runs only on its manufacturer’s or operator’s own software has no such setting. Even when the hardware is in good condition, there is no way for a third party to manage it.
Most chargers are an open system. They support OCPP and can be pointed at any OCPP management platform, so they can be adopted by a new operator. Units supplied by a charge point operator under its own brand are the exception. Pod Point is the common example of a closed system in developer built blocks. Its back office is closed, so a third party cannot manage the chargers through another platform. Where closed units are out of contract, or were simply part of the original build, they can be replaced with an open system, and the £500 per socket grant can lower the upfront cost of doing so.
During the survey we check the following on every unit:
- The make and model.
- Whether it supports OCPP 1.6 or later.
- The condition of the unit and its cabling.
From there we can confirm which chargers can be kept and adopted and which need replacing, before any money is spent.
How is an existing EV charger moved onto a new management platform?
An open charger is moved by reconfiguring it, not rewiring it. Our engineer connects to each unit, points it at our platform’s server address and checks that it connects over the building’s WiFi or a mobile signal. Once it is online it appears on the platform like any charger we have installed ourselves, and the tariff, the access rules and the monitoring are set up from there. The chargers stay on the wall and the cabling is untouched.
Residents then register on the app or are issued an RFID card, because the old operator’s platform and the logins residents used with it go with the operator.
To give an example, at Millbrook Park in Mill Hill the developer had installed 20 chargers in the base build and handed the block over with nobody to manage them. We adopted all 20 onto our platform without replacing a single unit. Residents received an invitation link to sign up, RFID tags were added to their accounts, and the block went from no billing to every session paid for by the resident who used it.
What does it cost to keep the existing EV chargers instead of replacing them?
Keeping a charger costs a fraction of replacing it, because there is no hardware to buy and no installation. The cost is the engineer’s visit to reconfigure and test each unit, and the platform fee per socket. The fee covers the app, the billing, the remote monitoring and the support residents call when something stops working. The kWh rate residents pay is set by the block on the platform, so the block recovers its electricity from the first session.
The £500 per socket grant is for new chargepoints, so it comes into play only where a unit is replaced, and we handle the application as part of the job. Where the survey finds a mix, which is common, the open units are adopted and the locked or failed ones are replaced on the same visit. The block ends up with every bay on one platform. The steps from finding the old agreement to handing over the platform are on our switching EV charging provider page. The full service, including case studies, is on our apartment block EV charging page.
