Epic Charging Earns OCPP 2.0.1 Certification from the Open Charge Alliance, Ahead of California's September 28 Charger Requirements

Menlo Park, CA. September 3, 2026.

Epic Charging, a California-based EV charging software company, announced that its charging station management system has been certified to OCPP 2.0.1 in the Open Charge Alliance's OCPP Certification Program, covering Core and Advanced Security functionalities. The certification arrives weeks before new California Energy Commission requirements take effect that apply not only to charging hardware, but to the software platforms that operate and report on it.

Most conversations about EV charging compliance stop at the equipment. California's EV Charger Data and Reliability Standards do not.

Under the regulation, a networked charger installed on or after September 28, 2026 must report using OCPP 2.0.1 and transmit the Hourly Charger Data Reporting Specification.

The requirement that reaches the software works through the site host. For a charger installed on or after that date, the site host must designate an enrolled charging network provider to serve as its recordkeeping and reporting agent. And to become enrolled, a provider must attest to "Subset Certification of the Charging Station Management System in the Open Charge Alliance OCPP Certification Program for OCPP version 2.0.1 ... for Core and Advanced Security."

So the certification obligation applies to the management system in its own right. A platform that is not certified cannot enroll, and a provider that cannot enroll cannot be designated for a charger installed after the deadline. For site hosts, that turns a software procurement decision into a compliance constraint.

The obligation attaches to new installations. Chargers already in the ground are not swept into it. These are also state regulations rather than the conditions of any single grant, so they apply to qualifying chargers that received public or ratepayer funding regardless of which program provided it. Related requirements in the same regulation cover uptime for publicly funded DC fast chargers and an API making charger availability, accessibility, and real-time pricing data available to third-party developers.

The September 28 date lands nine days before CALeVIP's Fast Charge California Project Window 2 opens on October 7, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. PT, with applications closing January 14, 2027. That program offers incentives of $55,000 to $100,000 per DC fast charging port, depending on guaranteed output capacity.

For site hosts, property owners, and operators planning California projects this fall, that compresses the timeline. Equipment decisions, network provider selection, and reporting arrangements all need to hold up against requirements that are already dated and already written.

Certification does not make a project eligible for funding. Eligibility depends on the applicant, the site, the equipment, the installation, and each program's own rules. What certification does is remove one dependency from the list, and it is the dependency site hosts are least likely to have checked.

OCPP 2.0.1 certification is not a statement of intent to support the protocol. It is testing against the Open Charge Alliance's OCPP Compliance Test Tool, conducted at an OCA-authorized laboratory, resulting in a certificate that is published in OCA's public register with a certificate number.

In OCA's own words, the Core profile is mandatory and covers "basic Charging Station functionality for booting, authorization (incl. cache if available), configuration, transactions, remote control, including basic security." Advanced Security adds "support for TLS with client authentication." Together they set a verified floor for how a platform authenticates chargers and protects the connection.

That distinction matters commercially. Supporting a protocol is a claim a vendor makes about itself. Certification is a claim a third party makes about the vendor, and it is the form California's regulation asks for.

The operational case for OCPP 2.0.1 was there before the regulation.

• A stronger security baseline. TLS with client authentication is part of the tested and certified scope, not a vendor claim about itself.
• Better device management. A component-and-variable model lets a platform read and set charger configuration and monitor equipment at a finer level than a simple online-or-offline signal.
• More useful diagnostics. Richer transaction and event reporting gives operators more to work with when a charger misbehaves, and more to report when a program asks.
• More capable smart charging. More expressive charging profiles, including stacking, for sites managing limited electrical capacity.
• Room to grow. The protocol was built to be extended, which matters for portfolios that will outlive their first generation of hardware.

Open protocols also change the shape of the commercial relationship. Charger hardware and network software are procured separately, replaced on different schedules, and should not have to be replaced together. That is the argument for open standards that has always mattered most to owners, and it is now backed by a certification a regulator recognizes.

Epic Charging is a California company building software for charge point operators, fleets, multifamily properties, commercial sites, and public networks. The platform is hardware-agnostic and OCPP-based by design, integrating with more than 125 charger brands, and Epic has run large-scale migrations of chargers from networks that shut down or changed hands.

That posture, open protocols and no hardware lock-in, is the same one California's requirements now formalize.

If you are scoping a California charging project this fall, or preparing for the Fast Charge California Window 2 application period, Epic can walk you through how the OCPP 2.0.1 and reporting requirements affect hardware selection, network provider choice, and your reporting obligations. Contact the Epic Charging team at epiccharging.com.

About Epic Charging

Epic Charging is a California-based EV charging software company providing an open-platform, OCPP-compliant charge point management system designed to maximize uptime, reliability, and profitability for charge point operators. Recognized by Ohm Analytics as the fastest-growing EV charging software provider in the United States for the second consecutive year, Epic supports multifamily, commercial, fleet, municipal, and public charging, integrates with more than 125 charger brands and 200+ electric vehicles, and is SOC 2 compliant with CTEP certification for payment processing. Backed by LAZ Parking, Epic has executed large-scale network migrations including the transition of thousands of chargers from the Enel X network onto the Epic platform.
For more information, visit www.epiccharging.com.