Share&Charge Foundation Launches Open Charging Network on Energy Web Chain
Zug, Switzerland — March 4, 2020 — Today the Energy Web Foundation (EWF) announced that the Share&Charge Foundation (Share&Charge) has launched its Open Charging Network (OCN), which in part makes use of the Energy Web Chain. Share&Charge’s OCN is a decentralized e-roaming solution for seamless electric vehicle (EV) charging across different charge point networks. EWF launched the Energy Web Chain in mid-2019 as the world’s first public, open-source, enterprise-grade blockchain platform tailored to the global energy sector. Share&Charge officially launched OCN yesterday.
EV drivers typically enroll in a primary charge point network, but also want the convenience and benefit of being able to use any charge point, even if it is out of their primary network. This is known as e-roaming. It’s similar to roaming with a cell phone, where a customer is able to use other cellular networks if their own is unavailable, though often at a cost premium.
Until now, the market has solved the e-roaming challenge with two approaches:
- Centralized intermediaries have entered the market as the go-between for various charge point operators (CPOs) and e-mobility service providers (EMSPs). They handle the e-roaming B2B logistics behind the scenes, but consequently add cost that ultimately passes through to EV drivers.
- In other cases, a number of CPOs and EMSPs have connected bilaterally in part to avoid intermediaries. But this becomes increasingly unwieldy as more and more CPOs and EMSPs enter the market.
“Our decentralized OCN solution offers a compelling alternative,” explained Christopher Burgahn, product and partner management lead at Share&Charge. “It can deliver e-roaming without the lock-in effects of the centralized intermediary approach, and it scales well, avoiding the hassle of setting up and managing ever more bilateral agreements. This type of system makes an all-electric mobility future a lot more realistic and breaks down one major barrier to global EV adoption.”
OCN uses the Open Charge Point Interface (OCPI v2.2) protocol, an interoperability standard that makes seamless e-roaming much more feasible. (The State of California’s Air Resources Board — covering North America’s largest electric vehicle market — has mandated OCPI for all charge points.) OCN will initially focus on the European market, where Share&Charge already has a strong presence in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.
One of the anchors of the OCN solution is its OCN Registry, which is a smart contract deployed on the Energy Web Chain. Any time an EV driver initiates a charge session at a participating charge point, the software checks the on-chain registry to properly route the e-roaming charge event between the appropriate parties. Share&Charge is also running an OCN test network on Volta, the Energy Web’s testnet.
“E-roaming for EV charging is a fantastic use case for a decentralized solution,” said Jesse Morris, EWF’s chief commercial officer. “Share&Charge has been a long-time partner of EWF. We are very excited for their team reaching this significant milestone of launching the Open Charging Network, and we’re proud that they’ve chosen to deploy their Registry on the Energy Web Chain.”
OCN thus becomes the latest application to adopt the Energy Web Chain. In September 2019, The Energy Origin (TEO) — a startup incubated within French multinational electricity utility Engie — announced that its decentralized application (dApp) had become the first to migrate onto the Energy Web Chain.
About Energy Web Foundation (EWF)
Energy Web Foundation (EWF) is a global nonprofit organization accelerating a low-carbon, customer-centric electricity system by unleashing the potential of blockchain and other decentralized technologies. EWF focuses on building core infrastructure and shared technology, speeding adoption of commercial solutions, and fostering a community of practice.
In 2019 EWF launched the Energy Web Chain, the world’s first open-source, enterprise blockchain platform tailored to the energy sector. EWF’s technology roadmap has since grown to include the Energy Web Decentralized Operating System (EW-DOS), a “blockchain-plus” suite of decentralized solutions. EWF also grew the world’s largest energy blockchain ecosystem comprising utilities, grid operators, renewable energy developers, corporate energy buyers, and others.
The Energy Web has become the industry’s leading blockchain partner and most-respected voice of authority on energy blockchain. For more information please visit https://energyweb.org.
About Share&Charge Foundation
The Share&Charge Foundation is an independent nonprofit organization. Supported by strong members from the e-mobility industry, the purpose is to enable open innovation for a better electric vehicle charging experience. For this the foundation is curating the Open Charging Network, a software solution based on the standard OCPI for secure and cheap eRoaming.
Contacts
Peter Bronski, Energy Web Foundation
+1.201.575.5545 | peter.bronski@energyweb.org
Nicole Arnone, Inflection Point Agency for EWF
+1.770.856.7185 | nicolearnone@inflectionpointagency.com
