The Open Charge Alliance (OCA) is a global consortium of public and private electric vehicle infrastructure leaders that have come together to promote open standards through the adoption of the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) and the Open Smart Charging Protocol (OSCP).
That’s the technical bit and, quite unashamedly, ripped off from the Open Charge Alliance website
So why is this important to a property manager?
In short, it will keep you out of the First Tier Tribunal via a challenge under section 19 of the landlord and tenants act 1985 – Reasonableness of service charges.
Stay with me on this point.
One of the biggest challenges with communal electric vehicle charging systems is ensuring that leaseholders are paying for the electricity they use and not getting it freely via the landlords electricity supply.
OCPP compliant chargers have the ability to measure the amount of electricity being used and the ability to report this to another OCCP compliant software…….In our case, a billing platform which ensures that those charging their cars ARE paying for the electricity being drawn (from the landlords supply) AND the landlords supply is being refunded.
A successful challenge under section 19 of the LLTA 1985 would prevent leaseholders from using their electric vehicle chargers as they would be “stealing” electricity.
Unless the electric vehicle chargers installed are OCPP compliant, the likelihood is that they would have to be replaced.