EV Roam, a new service provided by Renewable Energy Assurance Limited (REAL), delivered in partnership with the Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology (REA), will help facilitate the uptake of roaming between electric vehicle (EV) charging networks in the UK.
It will register unique identification codes to be used by Charge Point Operators (CPOs) and eMobility Service Providers (eMSPs).
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The service is crucial for those using the open protocol OCPI to communicate and underpins the legal agreements between companies.
Roaming (more generally known as ‘interoperability’) refers to CPOs and eMSPs developing cross-network solutions with each other so EV drivers with one charging company’s membership system (for example, app or RFID card) can use the same system to pay for their charging event on another company’s equipment.
Roaming has been highlighted as a key development to drive increased uptake of EVs by the EV Energy Taskforce in its final report and by Transport for London in its EV Infrastructure Delivery Plan.
It is commonplace in many countries in Europe, but has only started to take off in the UK in the past two years. This new service for the UK is expected to accelerate such agreements coming to the fore.
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By GlobalDataEV Roam will serve as the UK’s ID Registration Organisation (IDRO). It will operate in line with the EU’s IDACS 2019 agreement and ISO15118 agreed codes.
Companies that have already signed up to the registration service include Zap-Map (to facilitate its Zap-Pay service), Drivenergy and Octopus Energy.
“REAL is in an ideal position to provide this important service alongside the other schemes we run in the renewable energy and circular economy sectors,” said Renewable Energy Assurance chief executive, Virginia Graham.
“We work in an independent and not-for-profit manner and any profits from EV Roam will be recycled back into the organisation so we can grow other schemes crucial to the growth of the sector.
“These include the EV Consumer Code for Home Chargepoints (EVCC), which sets and enforces high standards for domestic charge point installers.”
