The Beginning of OpenCPMS Core
Nomen est Omen
OpenCPMS Core is our contribution to provide a true open source system as a base for charge point operators who are looking for a lightweight and highly scalable charge point management system.
Why we launched the OpenCPMS Core project
We have been building software in the field of e-mobility and charging infrastructure for four years now. I would say, if there is somewhere a highly emerging market in the field of mobility, than it is the race to build and run the charging infrastructure the electric vehicles will need in the upcoming years.
Beside of the mandatory technical systems for the charging stations in the field, several - so called - "Charge Point Management Systems" emerged on the market. On the one hand developed and run as a shared cloud solution (SaaS solutions) like driivz or be.ENERGISED and on the other hand individually developed solutions to operate for the own business.
Companies that want to provide charging services to their customers, either as the main business or as a complementary service (supermarkets or car park operators), have the choice. By partly outsourcing the charge point management and integrate an existing cloud solution or by developing an own greenfield solution. Both ways can be risky, reinforced by the fact that charge point management systems are highly integrated systems. And as everybody knows, integration makes software complex. Using an existing cloud solution gives you dependencies which you might want to avoid in such a competing market. The development of an own greenfield solution can take years and need the hiring of very good (and expensive) software developers due to the aforementioned complexity.
We believe in Open Source. And therefore we believe that an open source framework for a flexible (adaptable) charge point management that can be used in a professional environment should exist.
The scope of OpenCPMS Core
In simple terms, OpenCPMS ist the basic system that is able to talk to and manage your charging stations in the field (using OCPP). On the other side it integrates to your billing system and takes care of secure authentications. A simple (as a basic implementation) administration frontend will give you insights about your charging infrastructure and
the historic and currently running transactions. Our aim is not to provide an out of the box (turn key solution). We want to give you a framework that enables rapid development of powerful systems which are operated by professional charge point operators.
OpenCPMS emerges, but it is still in its infancy. So let us see, where the journey leads us...