Charging Station Management Software and Remote Monitoring: How it Benefits Charging Station Operators and EV Owners

Electric vehicles are becoming more and more popular across the globe. In some places such as Europe, the United States, and China, the market is already more mature, while in India, it is getting stronger and stronger, gaining space and consolidating itself as a viable solution for mobility.

Year after year, the number of electric cars on the streets increases, breaking sales records and showing that more charging stations will be needed. Ensuring the operation of charging points and maintaining their reliability is a major challenge for whoever manages this equipment.

The need for EV charging management software has never been stronger, as now drivers are more likely to charge at work, at the mall, or wherever it's convenient.

If you intend to start or already have an electric vehicle charging business, you need a management platform. It is worth noting that this solution is not exclusive to companies, establishments, or businesses.

What does management software do and what is it for?

Developing a charging network can be relatively easy, but ensuring the reliability and maintenance of charging stations is a challenge. This challenge is where EV management software becomes crucial.

The software provides a centralized view of the entire electric vehicle charging ecosystem through a web portal (specific web page) or mobile application. With the management system, you have full control over many customizable settings and station information such as:

• Real-time operating status;
• Energy consumed;
• Power of each station;
• Pricing and payment methods;
• Station and user access control;
  

In addition, you have access to reports and diagnostic tools, which help to prevent failures and help to put the stations out of operation in operation as quickly as possible, all this remotely.

The system also lets you adjust rules and conditions that tell your stations how to allocate available power. That way, no matter how many cars are charging on your network, they can start the charging session without going over the limits of the power grid.

It is important to emphasize that it is not just a simple list of stations with information about them. Instead, it allows users to access a vast array of additional features and services that can make vehicle charging easier and more convenient, and ultimately drive EV adoption.

How the system works

To have all this information centralized on a platform, the charger needs to be connected to a network. This means that it needs to be a smart charger – compatible with communication protocols – which allows integration with management software. This is why OCPP certification is so important.

The Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) is the industry standard for connecting smart electric vehicle chargers with management services. When stations and software are OCPP compliant, they can talk and work together, even if they are manufactured by different companies.

From this communication, the charger sends information via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection directly to the platform, where you have access and control of the charging station.

Benefits of the management platform for Operators and EV Owners

The right platform allows you to easily track charging point performance, offer to charge to drivers, and even generate revenue from usage, as well as better understand customer usage patterns to improve charging station placement and marketing strategies.

Here, we list the main benefits of having a management system for EV owners and drivers.

Energy consumption control

Charging station management software lets you see exactly how much electricity each charging point is using daily. It gives you the ability to define rules for when the charger can be used and how much power it can consume.

Thanks to the possibility of limiting the maximum power, charging station managers can avoid possible extra energy costs. This can happen when there is an energy demand contract by the enterprise with the energy concessionaire. So that the energy consumption does not exceed the limit of the contract, it is possible to adjust the maximum electric current of the charging station.

Even if the enterprise does not have this type of contract, access to the amount of energy consumed by the vehicle makes it possible for drivers to monitor consumption habits and prepare for the electricity bill, as well as for enterprises to individualize energy consumption and charge according to use.

Account savings

Having information about energy consumption is also useful to check how much you currently pay for charging your electric car, making it possible to control your expenses and improve charging time.

The management of the charging point helps with financial savings by automatically optimizing charging periods and taking advantage, for example, of the hours when electricity is cheaper: an off-peak tariff.

At the same time, it helps to protect the environment, as charging the vehicle at low consumption times allows balancing the electrical grid, which means reducing emissions in electricity generation.

Control of users, stations, and tariffs

To control the loader, operation, costs, and resources, you can limit who has access to equipment and even user access level.

For fleet operators, for example, it could be the logistics team and drivers. For public stations, this can be registered users or anyone with a credit card. That is, within the platform it is possible to configure which users will have access, how access will be, and which resources will be available. You can:

• Add new loaders;
• Change equipment parameters;
• Update station settings;
• Create load profiles;
• Adjust tariff value (by the energy consumed, time used, fixed price, etc).
  

The charging option and payment methods are important points, because when a charging station is used by several drivers, automatic payment makes everything faster and easier, guaranteeing a great recharge experience.

Management software can also separate data and insights from multiple users and charging stations. This is relevant in case you own more than one electric vehicle (or charging stations) and want to track the charging information separately.

Remote monitoring

As a charging station operator, you offer electric vehicle drivers a service. Therefore, it is critical to ensure that chargers are up and running when drivers want to charge.

Actions such as starting and stopping charging sessions, unlocking sockets (connectors), defining charging profiles, limiting power per user, updating firmware, and supervising the network can be performed remotely, that is, it is not necessary to be in the same place as the equipment.

The most common problems with chargers, such as failure to restart after a charge, can be handled remotely, significantly reducing maintenance costs.

Notifications and Troubleshooting

It's one thing to install the point and have them ready for use, but keeping them working properly is something else. For this, it is important to follow the failure notifications and know what must be done to mitigate the problem.

The notification feature reports any problematic stations and can initiate automated troubleshooting processes. In this way, you can check all alerts and analyze them and, if possible, resolve them through remote maintenance.

If it is necessary to solve the problem on-site, the information collected by the monitoring system will provide correct data to help find and solve the problem.

Loading Balance

When the number of chargers in a given location increases, such as in a fleet depot, corporate condominiums, or multi-unit residential buildings, you need to optimize power distribution.

With load balancing, multiple vehicles can be charged simultaneously without overloading the local power grid.

At this point, the charging station management platform enables dynamic load control, ensuring that each user receives the same charging energy and, if there is only one user, the car will be charged with full energy.

Customer satisfaction

Public charging points influence the behavior of electric car drivers. Consumers are already making decisions about where to shop, eat or stay overnight based on the availability of a charging station. By offering a charging service for electric vehicles, you will increase customer loyalty and extend visit times.

Having your business charger connected to a public network increases your visibility as well as attracts new customers to your location more easily. In addition, through the application, the driver can see if the station is free or not, and can reserve the space in advance to avoid unnecessary trips.

Who can have this solution?

Truth be told, anyone who manages or has charging points for electric vehicles can benefit from using EV management software.

This solution offers several benefits, from greater convenience for drivers to greater profitability for point operators. Of course, each case will depend on some factors, including the type and location of the station, but any smart charger can have a system like this for monitoring.

It is commonly used in large loading places such as:

• Electric vehicle fleet garages;
• public charging stations;
• Corporate and commercial parking lots;
• Hotel and lodging establishments;
• Residential apartment blocks (condominiums).
  

Roughly speaking, any place where a vehicle can park. In addition to those listed, electric vehicle owners can also benefit from the technology.

Kazam CMS

Kazam has the ideal platform for you to manage your charging points and optimize energy consumption with real-time data. Our software is compatible with any charger and has a simple configuration done by our team.

With our system, you can:

• Turn your recharge network into a business;
• Know your customers better;
• Monitor your network in real-time;
• Develop a new source of income.

Here, we continually build and develop our EV management solution so that it can handle the complexities of operating and expanding an EV charger network.

Discover the Kazam software that will take your business to the next level.

Conclusion

A good charging service comes to save everyone's time and money. It is aimed at ensuring complete customer satisfaction, as well as providing detailed information on how to make stations even more efficient and profitable.

The key to a successful and profitable electric vehicle charging business lies in your choice of hardware (charger) and software (management system). The right management platform helps you quickly deploy charging infrastructure and operate your network at peak performance.

It even allows you to add chargers from multiple vendors, manage your chargers remotely, increase monetization, and create personalized user experiences. It must be stable and reliable, flexible and scalable to support current and future infrastructure while minimizing downtime.