ChargyTS Desktop App

Chargy is a transparency software library for the validation of secure and transparent e-mobility charging processes, as defined by the German Calibration Law ("Eichrecht") in combination with the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) and the new Measuring instruments (MID-11) of the European Commission and the European Digital Quality Infrastructure. The software allows you to verify the cryptographic signatures of energy measurements within charge detail records and comes with a couple of useful extentions to simplify the entire process for endusers and operators.

Benefits of Chargy

1. Chargy comes with meta data. True charging transparency is more than just signed smart meter values. Chargy allows you to group multiple signed smart meter values to entire charging sessions and to add additional meta data like EVSE information, geo coordinates, tariffs, ... within your backend in order to improve the user experience for the ev drivers.
2. Chargy is secure. Chargy implements a public key infrastructure for managing certificates of smart meters, EVSEs, charging stations, charging station operators and e-mobility providers. By this the ev driver will always retrieve the correct public key to verify a charging process automatically and without complicated manual lookups in external databases.
3. Chargy is platform agnostic. The entire software is available for desktop and smart phone operating systems and .NET. If you want ports to other platforms or programming languages, we will support your efforts.
4. Chargy is Open Source. In contrast to other vendors in e-mobility, we belief that true transparency is only trustworthy if the entire process and the required software is open and reusable under a fair copyleft license (AGPL).
5. Chargy is open for your contributions. We currently support adapters for the protocols of different charging station vendors like chargeIT mobility, ABL (OCMF), chargepoint. The certification at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) is provided by chargeIT mobility. If you want to add your protocol or a protocol adapter feel free to read the contributor license agreement and to send us a pull request.
6. Chargy is white label. If you are a supporter of the Chargy project you can even use the entire software project under the free Apache 2.0 license. This allows you to create proprietary forks implementing your own corporate design or to include Chargy as a library within your existing application (This limitation was introduced to avoid discussions with too many black sheeps in the e-mobility market. We are sorry...).
7. Chargy is accessible. For public sector bodies Chargy fully supports the EU directive 2016/2102 on the accessibility of websites and mobile applications and provides a context-sensitive feedback-mechanism and methods for dispute resolution.

Supported Charge Transparency Data Formats

Currently supported formats include:

• Alfen charge transparency data
• Bauer energy meter data (2 format variants)
• ChargePoint transparency data (2 format variants)
• EDL40 and ISA-EDL40 SML data
• EMH energy meter data
• Mennekes XML
• OCMF, versions v1.1 to v1.4
  • Bonner Eichrechtstage Tariff Text Extensions
  • EdDSA support: Ed25519 and Ed448
  • Post-Quantum Cryptography support: ML-DSA-44, ML-DSA-65, ML-DSA-87
• Porsche Charging Data Format (PCDF)

Supported representations include:

• Plain Files containing a single charge transparency data set.
• chargeIT Container Format, a JSON-based container format for a single charging session (2 format variants).
• Chargy Container Format, a JSON-based container format for multiple charging sessions.
• SAFE XML Container Format, an XML-based container format for a single charging session, optionally enriched with additional Chargy metadata about the charging session.
• PTB Container Format, a JSON-based container format for a single charging session.
• Archive formats such as tar, ZIP, tar.gz, and similar formats that combine or compress multiple charge transparency files.
• QR-Code images, such as PNG, JPG, JPEG or SVG files, where the QR-Code represents a charge transparency data set.
• PDF/A-3 files transporting a charge transparency file as an embedded additional data stream.

Editions, Versions and Milestones

Version 1.2.x of the Chargy Transparency Software was reviewed and certified by Verband der Elektrotechnik Elektronik Informationstechnik e.V. (VDE). If you are a charge point vendor and want to use this software to verify the compliance with the German Eichrecht you can talk to our partner ChargePoint and obtain the required legal documents.

Version 1.0.x of the Chargy Transparency Software was reviewed and certified by Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB). If you are a charge point vendor and want to use this software to verify the compliance with the German Eichrecht you can talk to our partner chargeIT mobility and obtain the required legal documents.

If you need help with the Chargy Transparency Software or want to include your smarty energy meter or transparency data format, talk to us.

This software is also available as WebApp.

Future

The development of version v2.x already started and will focus on enhanced security concepts, more digital certificates and pricing information.

Credits

• Christian Meusel for some more BSM validations.

Funding

This Open Source project is partially funded by the NGI Zero Commons Fund as part of our EVQI project.

We also appreciate any additional funding and long-term support for the Chargy family, for example via GitHub Sponsors, as it helps us keep the project sustainable, independent and useful for the entire e-mobility community.

Awards

The Chargy Transparency Software is one of the winners of the 1. Thuringia's Open-Source Prize in March 2019. This prize was awarded by Wolfgang Tiefensee, Thuringia’s Secretary of Commerce, in conjunction with the board of directors of the IT industry network ITNet Thuringia.