Software Development for Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Platform

The project focused on supporting our client in developing a Platform for Electric Vehicle Charging Stations. The scope of our work included: expanding the payments functionality, implementing communication with the mobile app, optimization of existing user paths, implementing a user management process, and implementing multitenancy software architecture.

Customer

Enelion

Enelion is a manufacturer of electric car chargers and ecosystem management software for electromobility. The company has been designing electronics and manufacturing equipment in Poland since 2016 and has delivered several thousand chargers to customers at home and abroad. Enelion is also developing charger network management software to provide operator and charging service providers. In addition to foreign customers, Enelion cooperates in the Polish market with PGE, Tauron, Energa, Polenergia, and Greenway.

Experience we shared

Data management

Software integration

IoT

Customers’ business goals

The simple provision of chargers to tenants and billing of energy consumed in the administration system.

Optimal use of available power in the building.

Protection against network overload in an office building or parking lot.

Solution

A search for users optimization

Here we have used PostgreSQL algorithms (ltree) for representing labels of data stored in a hierarchical tree-like structure.

Closest stations search optimization

We have employed a PostGIS, a spatial database extender for PostgreSQL object-relational database. It supports geographic objects allowing location queries to be run in SQL.

Communication between applications and queuing

We have deployed an open-source message broker, RabbitMQ, which can be deployed in distributed and federated configurations to meet high-scale, high-availability requirements.

Hardware management integration between apps

The goal was to provide remote access to the status of the charger but also to allow users and end-users to control the charger, e.g., switch it on/off remotely. Both groups are using different apps to perform these activities. Our team accessed the chargers software backend and conducted the integration from that level.

Process

DAC.digital software development team has been working together with the client’s team. The work has been aligned with the scrum methodology.

Delivered value:

A search of charging stations,
Chargers booking,
Payments monitoring,
Integration of the platform with end users’ mobile app,
Remote control over the charger stations (start/end, status),
Users division (Operators & Charging Service Providers) and access level control.

The system allows dividing the network into smaller operators, who will only have access to their devices. Charging Service Providers can check the status of the charging station. Thanks to the connection with the Enelink system, most of the maintenance activities will be performed remotely. Another feature was setting up a charging plan that will limit the station’s power at the right time if the Service provider chooses several Operators. All charging stations can be labeled. This makes it easier for Service Provider to manage the stations from a given label. Then, information about the stations’ availability can be easily shared with end-users in a few clicks.

Dynamic Tariff solution gives an attractive offer for each end-user, encourages them to charge in specific places, and introduces discount coupons and VIP programs. Entering tariffs helps Service Providers optimize earnings at charging stations.