Q1:what is your current involvement and experience with OCPI?
I’m the CTO of Gireve, a company that offers services to eMobility players in a B2B mode. These services are accessible via user interfaces, but mainly via API implementing the OCPI protocol. OCPI is therefore a key element in our activity. We manage on our platform hundreds of OCPI connections exchanging 1+ billion of messages in OCPI per month. We are compliant with OCPI 2.1.1 and OCPI 2.2.1.
My first OCPI workshop was in 2017, and our first full-scope implementation was in 2019. We intermediate heterogeneous protocols/versions data flows with a real-time translation mechanism.
We believe that standards reduce the run costs of e-mobility-roaming services, and the entry costs for new players. eMobility is a young domain which needs scalability, agility and innovation, and this is a reason why it is essential to facilitate and promote the arrival of new players. OCPI as the standard for information exchanges related to roaming is a major asset for the eMobility ecosystem!
On Gireve’s side we are strong sponsor of OCPI, and we use all our communication events and messages to promote OCPI.
Q2: what has driven you to join the EVRoaming Board?
I was part of the team that built the governance body for OCPI, now named EVRoaming Foundation (EVRF), because I thought (and still think) that an asset like OCPI must be protected, managed and constantly developed and enhanced. I personally joined the Board, but Gireve’s colleagues contribute to the technical working groups and to other EVRF initiatives.
I am particularly attentive to the aspects of openness and agility: Promoting the arrival of new players in the ecosystem; Promoting innovations; Promoting the deployment of OCPI! I am also vigilant that the EVRF not only manages the daily life of OCPI, but also projects over the long term and outlines what the IT exchanges of electromobility should be by 2030 and 2035.
Q3: What is your ambition/vision for EVRoaming and OCPI for the coming years?
The ambition, for OCPI is to become THE worldwide standard for e-Roaming. It means that EVRF must work (this is already the case) on the geographical deployment, and on switching OCPI from a de-facto-standard to a de-jure-standard
The ambition is also to develop “implementation” guidelines, tools and services, to help operators to implement OCPI easily and to assure a homogeneous way of interpreting OCPI and the way to implement it. By this way we will be able go from technical interoperability (the protocol), to business interoperability (the implementation and the use cases)
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