What is roaming of EV charging services?

Mass adoption of electric vehicles requires the deployment of a dense charging infrastructure throughout the country.
It also requires the development of charging service roaming, i.e. the possibility for the customer of an e-mobility service provider to easily access to the infrastructure of any other infrastructure operator while travelling. This access includes primarily the possibility of locating charging points, to know if they are available, to book a charging spot if possible, to be allowed to recharge and set the price of the recharge through its contract with his e-mobility service provider.
Roaming of charging service is of paramount importance to reinsure EV users, relieving them of the concern for autonomy and of recharging their vehicle. It is a major key for e-mobility development, opening up frontiers between service producers.

In order to set up charging service roaming, we have to settle links between the two roles endorsed by e-mobility operators, as shown in this figure:

• charging spot operator, who operates charging stations and supply electricity charging service to vehicles connected to them,
• e-mobility service supplier, who product services to an EV user according to the contract signed with him.

A single actor can play both roles: this is the case when a charging spot operator proposes contracts for charging services to users of his charging stations. He must organize the distinction between these two roles in order to allow customers of other operators to access to his same charging stations.

The links established between these roles realize transactions allowing customers of a mobility operator to access the charging points of another charging point operator. These transactions primarily concern access to charging station pools and authorization to connect to a charging point. This is why a universal identification system has been established for these three fundamental objects: a customer’s contract, the charging station pool and the charging point.

Vocabulary: see the definition of terms used.