Registration opens for first OCA Plugfest and Conference in Australia

The three-day event will bring together charging-station manufacturers, charging station management system (CSMS) providers, software developers and other organisations working with the Open Charge Point Protocol.

A conference will be held on the opening day, followed by two days of structured interoperability testing. Testing will support OCPP 1.6, OCPP 2.0.1 and OCPP 2.1 implementations.

Testing OCPP implementations with multiple partners

OCPP is designed to enable communication between charging stations and management platforms. However, supporting the same version of the protocol does not automatically guarantee that every product will behave in exactly the same way when connected to another company’s system.

During the Plugfest, participating teams will be matched with several testing partners through a round-robin schedule. This gives developers an opportunity to compare how their implementation performs with different charging stations and CSMS platforms, identify unexpected behaviour and work through compatibility issues in a collaborative setting.

The event is intended as a development and learning exercise rather than a competition. Participation does not represent OCPP certification, and test results are not used to publicly rank or compare products.

The conference on 21 October will cover grid integration, smart charging, cybersecurity, implementation readiness and international market experience. The programme will also examine how OCPP can work alongside Australian grid communication requirements and the continuing development of vehicle-to-grid integration.

Why Plugfests matter

Interoperability problems can be difficult and expensive to diagnose after charging equipment has been installed. Plugfests provide a controlled environment in which differences in configuration, optional functionality and message handling can be identified earlier with several testing partners.

Supporting OCPP 1.6, 2.0.1 and 2.1 also reflects the current market. OCPP 1.6 remains widely deployed, while newer versions introduce broader security, smart-charging and device-management capabilities.

Registration and attendance

Registration is open to onsite and online testing teams. An observer programme will also allow attendees to view demonstrations and learn more about the interoperability-testing process.

The event is free for Open Charge Alliance members, while fees apply to non-member testing teams and observers. Full programme and registration details are available from OCA.