Content of the Article

• General information about the connection
• Configuration options
  • Communication protocols
  • Client name
  • Connection types
• OCPP Endpoints
  • Private
  • Privatessl
  • Privateauth
  • Public
• Ports
• About public and private auth URL security – BASIC AUTHORISATION
• BASICAUTH Password

General Information

This article describes the basic configuration to connect a charging station to be.ENERGISED. 
You can configure your charging station using the accessible OCPP endpoints. This configuration allows you to connect to the be.ENERGISED back office using SIM card(s) or VPN certificate(s) provided by  ChargePoint. 

For the connection to be.ENERGISED, we currently support both SOAP and websocket connections based on the current OCPP specifications.

In the following article, we will discuss the configuration of the charging station for the connection to be.ENERGISED.

Configuration options

Communication protocols:

• HTTP and HTTPS for SOAP
• WS and WSS for Websocket/JSON

Based on the communication protocol configuration, the connection is made via TCP connections or WebSocket connections based on TCP/UDP. In principle, we provide encrypted endpoints for all configurations. It is recommended to use the TLS secured connections (HTTPS / WSS) even in protected networks.

Client name:

• "INSTANCE": Each client has their own subdomain (slug) that is used for the domain name.
• The client’s name is assigned by ChargePoint and cannot be changed.

Connectivity types:

To connect a charging station, we provide dedicated endpoints based on the required security levels of data communication and support from the charging station. The choice of endpoints affects the configuration of your charging station.

• Private - Secure unencrypted connection in a protected APN/VPN network via SIM cards, VPN certificates from ChargePoint or a site-2-site connection.

• Privatessl - Secure encrypted connection in a protected APN/VPN network via SIM cards, VPN certificates from ChargePoint or a site-2-site connection.

• Privateauth - Private Authentication - Encrypted connection in a protected APN/VPN network with additional Basic Authentication to identify the charging station.
  
  
• Public - Encrypted connection over the Internet in conjunction with Basic Authentication. (More information on Basic Authentication can be found her) If charging stations are connected via a public communication channel, this configuration is the only connection option.

OCPP Endpoints

Based on your instance, we provide the following endpoints:

Ports

For private connection variants, please enter port "80".

e.g. ws://INSTANCE.private.ocpp-broker.com:80/ocpp/cp/socket/15/CHARGE_POINT_ID

Port "443" must be used for all public and secure variants.

About the security of the Public and Private authentication-URL - BASIC AUTHENTICATION

As already described above, you have different variants of broker connection to our be.ENERGISED back office to choose from.

One of them is the public connection (public), which allows you to connect stations to be.ENERGISED that do not communicate via our internal VPN. For this, the charging station must support BASIC AUTHENTICATION. Please contact your hardware manufacturer for more information!

If you have any questions about this connection variant, please contact a sales representative or our ChargePoint be.ENERGISED support team.

The "privateauth" variant also offers you the option of additionally protecting the connection between the back office and the charging station with a username and password. Your charging station must also support BASIC AUTHENTICATION for this.

BASICAUTH Password

You can find your BASICAUTH password in your be.ENERGISED instance. 

Please go to Settings/System settings/OCPP Security Settings.

Here you can view your password and also add new BASICAUTH passwords.

If you do not find the item OCPP Security Settings under Settings/System settings, then the right for this user group has not yet been enabled. 

To do this, go to User management/Groups/Overview and click on the Groups icon and then the Rights button for the relevant group. Under the tab Settings you will find the item OCPP Security Settings. Set this to YES and the right is then activated for the respective user group.

For more information on rights management please have a look at this article.