ChargePoint, a provider of solutions for charging electric vehicles (EVs), announced a significant investment in the application of technology from the networking and information security worlds, which aims to deliver charging station reliability of nearly 100%, once fully implemented. This technology will be combined with natural language processing, enhanced driver communications, and a training certification.
The Network Operations Center (NOC) will implement 24/7 proactive station monitoring, predictive analytics, and leverage applied machine learning to detect station downtime more rapidly, in turn improving charger uptime and ensuring faster incident response. The NOC has been designed for rapid scale alongside the ChargePoint network which already surpassed 243,000 active charging ports plus roaming partners. Additionally, ChargePoint will introduce a training program to certify electrical contractors that install EV charging infrastructure.
ChargePoint generally measures station uptime as the portion of time each individual charging port can dispense energy, as a driver pulling in for a charge would expect, not averaged across a bank of charging stations at a single address. Today, ChargePoint delivers approximately 96% uptime on average across its entire public network in North America and Europe, and for ChargePoint Assure customers, ChargePoint provides a 98% annual station uptime guarantee.
“Accessible, reliable EV charging plays a critical role in the ongoing shift to electric mobility, and our NOC is prepared to ensure reliability at scale in support of EV adoption.” said Rick Wilmer, chief operating officer at ChargePoint. “We believe that our methodology of calculating uptime is the most transparent in the industry, and the most relevant to drivers which provides us with the necessary benchmark to build upon. We are improving the charging experience across the entire ecosystem — network, installer, site host, and app user — to ensure every driver who needs a charge has the best possible charging experience.”
Summary Of Initiatives
- With the introduction of the NOC, which went live in July 2023, ChargePoint will deliver 24/7 proactive monitoring to ensure almost any charging station issue can be instantly and remotely identified across more than 243,000 active ports under management on the ChargePoint network. ChargePoint designs and develops integrated hardware and software as an ecosystem, enabling constant communication between charging stations and the NOC. As a result of these rapid notifications, ChargePoint can alert station owners in the event of a charging station issue and enables ChargePoint to accelerate maintenance and repairs on their behalf.
- The NOC’s machine learning and Natural Language Processing capabilities will automatically process big data feeds, and social media mentions, to pinpoint individual charging stations with issues. The rapid identification and diagnosis of these issues will in turn enable 24-hour response and subsequent remediation action for ChargePoint Assure Pro customers. The net effect is that charging station hardware issues can be diagnosed remotely and remediated quickly. This, combined with the integration of predictive analytics, will make it possible to resolve certain issues before a charging station owner even notices an issue.
ChargePoint is developing a training and certification program for electrical contractors who work with EV charging infrastructure, with the aim of reducing reliability issues by ensuring proper installation of charging stations from day one and ensuring effective repairs when required. ChargePoint expects its training and certification programs to go live early in 2024.
