Successful EV charging software migration of 3,500 Eneco charge points

In the fast-paced world of eMobility, charge point operators must remain agile to achieve their business objectives.

Eneco eMobility opted to migrate a set of legacy charging stations from another software backend to the GreenFlux platform, boosting operational efficiency and ensuring future scalability.

Read Eneco Mobility's story

Eneco eMobility (Eneco) is a leading CPO and EMSP, operating more than 25,000 public and home charge points across the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany.

In 2021, Eneco’s previous hardware-plus-backend service provider for about 3,500 charge points opted to phase out its legacy software platform. Eneco wanted to simplify asset management and upgrade its charging management functional capabilities at the same time. Additionally, the operator needed to meet the price transparency norms mandated by the Netherlands’ Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) in the previous year.

The rules state that consumers–or EV drivers, in this case–must be able to see all costs clearly. That means: from the recharge card price to the invoice detailing their charging sessions. The regulation thus calls for charge point operators (CPOs) to offer ad hoc charging and share real-time transaction data with the drivers.

To meet its requirements and ensure business scalability, Eneco decided to migrate its 3,500 charge points under a single, future-proof GreenFlux EV charging platform.

Challenge

Migrating charge stations to a different software provider is usually a tedious and costly process

This project posed three major challenges: the need for the same communication language, secure path communication, and outstanding project management.

A large group of charge points from Eneco’s previous supplier were G2 (generation 2) chargers that used the older OCPP version (1.5 SOAP). Plus, there were some G3 (Generation 3) chargers that used OCPP 1.6 JSON, and several customisations and deviations of the protocols made by the existing back-end provider in the early days of EV charging.

  1. We had to accommodate different protocol versions and address potential communication issues.
  2. Ensuring safe communication with a secure data exchange between Eneco’s charge station telecom SIM card providers and the back-end platform was needed.
  3. With six different parties involved in the large-scale migration, the team had to facilitate efficient collaboration to deliver the project on time.

Solution

Private APN and VPN data connections ensured the desired security

The hardware-agnostic GreenFlux EV charging management platform accommodated charge stations leveraging a variety of OCPP protocol versions, including OCPP 1.5 SOAP, OCPP 1.5 JSON, and OCPP 1.6 JSON, plus deviations. The GreenFlux migration team then performed several integration tests, customised paths, and created an entirely new communication channel to optimise communication for various charge point configurations. Plus, our team ensured only stations with the latest firmware and correct configuration settings were migrated.

Security is one of the core principles of our product design, which means we ensure that our charge point management system is ISO 27001 and ISO 27002-certified. We set up private APN and VPN data connections with Eneco’s SIM card providers to achieve the desired security configuration. This avoided the need to physically change any SIM card in the charge stations.

'Creating these connections while ensuring safety is a major milestone that we achieved together with GreenFlux,' said Art Speksnijder, then Product Owner IT at Eneco eMobility.

GreenFlux conducted the migration in a phased manner, thereby avoiding a complete shutdown of charge points at any point in time and preventing distress to EV drivers. With over 10 years of operational experience in managing charge stations, we managed the coordination between six different parties. Furthermore, we took care of all the complicated technical requirements, from preparation to execution to the final migration of 3,500 charge points.

'Overall, the collaboration, commitment, and knowledge that GreenFlux offered helped make this migration a success,' added Art.

Results

Successful migration of 3,500 charge points

  • Operational Efficiency

  • Secure data communication

  • Simpler asset management

  • EU compliance

GreenFlux successfully migrated Eneco’s 3,500 charge points to its own charge point management system (CPMS). The outcome provided Eneco with operational efficiency of its entire network, secure data communication, and simpler asset management. Eneco ensured the future scalability of its business by operating all the charge points under one, future-proof EV charging platform. Besides, the company met the EU’s price transparency requirements and gained access to real-time data sharing and ad hoc payments.

GreenFlux is competent to handle large-scale, complicated projects, as was proven with this project that required a lot of technical expertise and coordination between stakeholders. Our EV charging software supports all current and legacy versions of OCPP and can perform any required integrations and customisations for protocols. And the GreenFlux migration team:

  • Facilitates efficient project management.
  • Customises any necessary technical changes when dealing with legacy systems.
  • Ensures all technicalities are up to standard.
  • Meets all safety concerns.

Download the full EV charging back-end migration case study: GreenFlux migrates Eneco's 3,500 charge points

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