Determining Simultaneous Charge Capability

Question
#1

Hi all,

I’m finding the OCM API very useful for one of my projects, yet, I’m coming across a problem that I can’t quite figure out.

Many charging stations have multiple connectors, but only one of them can be used at a time. My understanding is that the NumberOfPoints field in the API should indicate the number of simultaneous charges…in other words, how many cars can be charged by the single charging station. However, many of these chargers have no value for NumberOfPoints. A good exmaple is OCM ID 157335. This charging station has 3 connectors: Type 2 (falsely shown as DC), CHAdeMO, and Type-2 CCS, however NumberOfPoints is “Null”.

Should we assume that this charger can only charge one car at a time or that all 3 connectors can be used at the same time? Or is it simply not possible to know for sure?

Any insight is greatly appreciated!

#2

Hi, unfortunately we don’t have that information and generally have no standard way to indicate that. Number Of Points has over time come to mean the number of bays or units that can individually charge (you can debate the use of a unit that can charge two cars but only has one parking space).

Historically our data comes from a combination of imported data (from national registries etc) and crowd sourced data, in all cases there is/was no standard way to express the capabilities of the infrastructure. Data comes in all shapes and sizes and in many cases is pre-aggregated (i.e. we know there are 3 x Type 2 CCS connectors but we don’t know how they are arranged).

There was an intention to update our model to more explicitly define equipment stations (e.g. one unit that can provide two simultaneous connections, or one unit with two connectors but only one can be used at a time) but this has not yet been done (and would only be correct for equipment updated after that change).