- Onboarding & offboarding: registering the site & asset with Axle, and assigning responsibility for charging
- Charging: sending information about the user’s requirements, plug-in and plug-out events, and receiving charging schedules
- Reporting: sending charging session data
View end-to-end flow for smart charging integration
View end-to-end flow for smart charging integration
1. Onboarding & offboarding
Onboard your user and asset
Register the user’s site and EV charger with Axle to enable smart charging participation.Onboard site and asset
Add sites and assets to the Axle platform
Offboard
When a user withdraws consent or disconnects their charger, offboard the site and asset:Offboard site and assets
Remove sites and assets from the Axle platform.
2. Charging
To deliver Smart Charging, we need to know the customer’s tariff, intent and plugin/plugout events. We also need you to be able to receive and implement updated charging schedules. We will issue charging schedules when a user plugs in; when a user updates their tariff or intent; or in response to wider market changes.Tariff
We need to know the user’s tariff in order to optimise charging. You should send an update whenever the tariff changes.Send tariff
Send or update a user’s tariff
Collect and communicate intent
We need to know how much energy is required and when the vehicle needs to be ready. Together, we refer to this as the user’s intent.Energy requirements
We need to know how much energy is required in kWh. There are different ways to arrive at this number.| User provides | Notes |
|---|---|
| kWh to add | User describes requirement in kWh |
| Hours to add | Requires approximation of charge power |
| Nothing | Can be approximated or fixed to e.g. 4 hours charging |
Ready-by time
We need to know the deadline to deliver the energy requirements. You can collect ready-by with a standard time picker. For more customisation, you can collect separate ready-by times for different:- days of the week
- vehicles
Sending intent
Our recommendation is to communicate intent whenever it changes, to ensure Axle scheduling always uses the most recent values.Send intent
Send or update a user’s charging intent
Plugin and plugout events
Notify Axle when the vehicle plugs in and unplugs.Plug-in event
Notify Axle when a vehicle plugs in.
Plug-out event
Notify Axle when a vehicle unplugs.
Receiving charging schedules
Axle will issue new schedules:- When the user first plugs in
- When the user is already plugged in and one of the following events happens:
- The user’s tariff is updated
- The user’s intent changes
- Axle reoptimises in response to changes in the wider market
async.
To issue schedules, we need you to make an endpoint available to which we can send API requests.
If you already have an existing API that you think will support smart charging,
we can discuss integrating with that directly. However, our recommendation is
to integrate with our OCPP style request format.
- Specification of charge energy in an industry-standard format
- Stacking of schedules allows fallbacks in case devices go offline. For instance, our schedules should be overlaid upon a “default” schedule which always charges consumers during off-peak times
Special case: Communicating parameters upon enrolment
At the time of enrolment, we expect to immediately receive the information we need to schedule a charge. This means you should:- Call either plug-in or plug-out to communicate the plug state of the charger at the moment of enrolment
- Set the user’s tariff
- Set the intent — this can be a default value or the user’s first input
3. Reporting
Send readings
Send half-hourly consumption readings so Axle can verify delivery and calculate rewards.Send readings
Notify Axle of asset consumption readings
Next Steps
Earning from EV Charging
Learn how to manage user payments and withdrawals