EV charging management software: What it is, how it works, and why it’s important for owners and operators

Adding chargers to your property is straightforward. Running them? It involves a lot more than you might think. You have to decide—and control—who can plug in and what they pay. You’ll want to be able to review and report on charging activity, revenue, and energy consumption trends. And you’ll want to find out right away if there are any problems with your chargers—well before a driver shows up and is frustrated when they plug in and it doesn’t work.

EV charging management software handles those jobs, so you can keep drivers and tenants happy and keep energy costs under control. The trick is just to find the right solution to make offering charging simple for you and drivers alike.

Key takeaways

• Software is the layer that runs your chargers: EV charging management software lets you control who can charge, set prices and take payment, manage energy use, and monitor chargers from one dashboard.
• The core jobs are the same everywhere: whether you run a condo, a garage, an office, or a hotel, the software handles capacity, pricing, access, and reporting. What changes is who plugs in and what they pay.
• Load management stretches your electrical capacity: sharing the building’s existing supply across chargers can let you add chargers without a costly electrical upgrade.
• Open standards protect your investment: chargers and software that both support OCPP can be mixed and matched, so you aren’t locked to one vendor.

What is EV charging management software?

EV charging management software is software used to monitor and control electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, as well as to bill for charging sessions. It connects to the chargers themselves and lets site owners and operators manage access, pricing, payments, and energy use from one dashboard. This software will often connect to driver-side mobile apps used to find chargers, start charging sessions, and pay.

You may see the same thing sold under other names:

• EV charging station management systems (CSMS)
• Charge point management systems (CPMS)
• Charge point operator (CPO) platforms
• EV charging management solutions

The job is the same: the software is the layer that turns a row of chargers into a service you can run, bill for, and report on.

What does EV charging software include?

Most EV charging solutions bundle several functions. Some vendors sell them separately, so be sure to check that any solution you adopt has all the functionality you want or need.

Types of EV charging management software:

How does EV charging management software work?

In most modern setups, each charger connects to the internet and reports to a central, cloud-based management system. Some run on a local controller at the site instead, or combine the two so that chargers keep working through an internet outage. Many use Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP), an open standard that lets hardware and software from different companies work together, so you aren’t locked to one vendor.

A typical charging session works like this:

1. A driver taps an RFID card or uses the app. The charger checks with the platform that the driver is allowed to charge, then starts the session and reports usage (energy delivered and session length) as it runs.
2. During the session, the platform applies the pricing you set against the energy consumed, takes payment or records the cost against an account’s balance, and adds it to your invoices and reports.
3. If several chargers share the building’s electrical supply, load management features adjust how much power each one gets based on how many are in use or how much energy the overall property is consuming, so more chargers can run on the capacity you already have.
4. On demand, you can see usage, energy consumed, and charger status in one dashboard, and with proactive monitoring, you hear about charger issues before your drivers see them.

See SWTCH’s EV charging software in action

What problems does EV charging software solve?

Whether the drivers are residents, tenants, employees, guests, or the public, the software does the same core jobs. What changes from one property to the next is mostly who plugs in and what you want them to pay.

Fitting chargers into the electrical capacity you have

Most buildings weren’t designed with EV charging in mind, and giving every charger its own full-power circuit can mean a costly electrical upgrade. Load management technology avoids much of that. At New Times Square, a 375-unit condominium in Toronto, load management let the building add 21 chargers while avoiding an estimated $24,000 in electrical upgrades, with room to grow to 40.

Setting prices and recovering costs

You decide what drivers pay and if they pay, and the software takes payment and reports on revenue. Harbor Park Garage in Baltimore, Maryland, started by offering charging for free, and owner Andrew Sachs found the math worked in his favour. “It was costing me at most $2 for the electricity, and I could get $28 a day in parking,” he said. Read the Harbor Park Garage case study.

Controlling who can charge

The same chargers can serve different groups on different terms: residents and their visitors, office tenants, hotel guests, or the public. Access rules decide who can plug in, when, and at what price.

Keeping chargers running and seeing how they’re used

Reporting shows how your chargers are used, which tells you when to add more. At Scotia Square in Halifax, Crombie REIT’s property team estimated utilization rose about 30% within two months of upgrading to networked chargers, with three or four of the six often in use at once. Read the Scotia Square case study. As Abid Syed, Building Technology Manager at KingSett Capital, put it: “The SWTCH chargers provide great flexibility for EV users and enhanced data analytics for the building management team.”

Example use case: multifamily buildings

Multifamily buildings, also called multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs), bring all four jobs together. Charging at a single-family home with a driveway is a simple install. In a multifamily building, it is harder. Parking can be limited, the electrical room was built for lights and laundry, and billing has to be fair. For rental buildings the owner pays and residents benefit. For condos the problem is different: the parking is usually shared or deeded common property governed by the board, so an individual owner can’t simply run a circuit to their own stall.

Barriers to EV charging in multifamily buildings:

Software can’t make a parkade bigger or move an electrical room. It can handle billing, manage access, and balance the load across chargers, and that addresses the electrical capacity and metering barriers and helps allocate scarce stalls.

Who benefits from EV charging software?

Nearly everyone who charges, owns, or hosts chargers will touch charging software eventually. These groups benefit most today:

• Residential property managers. Apartment and condo buildings with shared parking use the software to allocate stalls, bill residents, and keep access fair.
• Commercial property owners and developers. Offices, shopping centres, and mixed-use sites offer charging as an amenity for tenants and customers, and use the software to manage stations and handle payments.
• Utilities. Demand management and tailored pricing help balance grid load, charging data supports grid planning, and driver apps support customer programs. The same data helps utilities report on environmental goals and regulatory requirements.
• Transportation hubs. Airports, train stations, and bus terminals can offer charging to travellers and staff, monitor stations in real time to keep them available, and earn revenue through usage fees or partnerships with EV service providers.
• Government and the public sector. Municipalities and agencies use it to deploy and monitor public charging, track utilization, connect charging to smart-grid programs for grid stability, and support policies that encourage EV adoption.
• Fleet operators. Companies running delivery vans or corporate vehicles use charging software to schedule charging, monitor vehicle and charging status, track energy use, and plan for more vehicles.
• EV drivers. As the primary users, drivers see the software as the app they use to find chargers, start sessions, and pay on the go. It needs to be simple enough to use without any technical knowledge.

Which EV charging standards and protocols should you know?

Among other things, standards decide whether chargers, software, and networks can work together. They also protect you if a vendor changes course or goes out of business, because open standards make it easier to change providers. There are many, but the five most important ones have an outsized impact on what chargers can do.

OCPP: how chargers talk to software

Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) is an open standard for communication between charging stations and the software that manages them. Maintained by the Open Charge Alliance, it lets chargers from one manufacturer work with management software from another. When you compare vendors, ask which OCPP version their chargers and software support.

Key versions:

• OCPP 1.6 established basic interoperability and core features, including smart charging.
• OCPP 2.0.1 adds better device management, security, and smart charging, plus support for Plug and Charge on vehicles that use ISO 15118. It was published as an international standard, IEC 63584, in 2024.
• OCPP 2.1, released in January 2025, builds on 2.0.1 and adds bidirectional charging, control of distributed energy resources such as solar and batteries, and new payment options.

Read more: What OCPP is and why it matters

ISO 15118: how vehicles talk to chargers

ISO 15118 is an international standard for digital communication between an EV and a charger. Where OCPP connects the charger to its software, ISO 15118 connects the vehicle to the charger, so the two can exchange information directly. That’s what makes Plug and Charge possible: the vehicle identifies itself when the driver plugs in, and the session starts and bills automatically, with no app or card. If Plug and Charge or vehicle-to-grid charging matters for your site, ask vendors whether their chargers support ISO 15118, and which parts.

Key parts (the standard was first published in 2013):

• ISO 15118-2 defines Plug and Charge and the communication for standard, one-way charging sessions.
• ISO 15118-20, published in 2022, adds support for two-way power flow, including vehicle-to-grid (V2G), where a parked EV can send power back to the grid.

OpenADR: how utilities signal demand response

Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) is a standard that lets utilities send automated signals to energy systems, such as a request to reduce load or a change in price. For charging, it means your chargers can ease off automatically when the grid is strained or prices peak, which can lower energy costs and help your site take part in utility demand response programs. If your utility runs such a program, choosing hardware and software that allow you to take part could save—or earn—you money.

Key versions:

• OpenADR 2.0 standardized demand response and distributed energy resource communications.
• OpenADR 3.0, released in November 2023, complements 2.0 with simpler messaging and more dynamic pricing signals.

OCPI: how networks support roaming

Open Charge Point Interface (OCPI) is a protocol that lets charging networks and e-mobility service providers exchange information such as station status, pricing, and billing data. That’s what makes roaming possible: a driver signed up with one network can find, use, and pay for chargers on another without opening a separate account. If you host or will host public charging, ask vendors which roaming networks and partners they connect to through OCPI.

Key versions:

• OCPI 2.2.1 supports roaming with real-time data exchange for pricing, availability, and reservations.
• OCPI 2.3.0, released in February 2025, is the version the EVRoaming Foundation recommends for North America, since earlier versions don’t handle details such as local tax levels.

SOC 2: how a vendor shows it protects your data

SOC 2 isn’t a charging protocol. It’s an independent audit, developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), of how a service provider protects customer data, measured against criteria for security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. It matters because your charging platform holds driver accounts, payment records, and usage data. Ask vendors for their latest SOC 2 report, and which type it is.

Report types:

• A Type I report describes the provider’s controls as designed at a single point in time.
• A Type II report tests whether those controls worked over a period, usually several months.

Choosing EV charging management software

Chargers are the part of EV charging everyone sees, but the software decides how well it runs: who can plug in, what they pay, how much power each charger gets, and how quickly you hear about a problem. When you compare options, check that a platform covers the functions your property needs, confirm that its chargers and software support OCPP so you aren’t locked to one vendor, and ask how it handles load management to help you install chargers less expensively, both now and in the future.

SWTCH’s EV charging management software handles access, pricing, payments, load management, and monitoring for condos, rental buildings, parking garages, offices, hotels, and more.

Weighing charging software for your property? Talk it through with our team.

Frequently asked questions

Will the software work with any charger?

Not necessarily. Some systems only work with their own chargers. Chargers and software that both support OCPP can be mixed and matched, so you can change one later without replacing the other. SWTCH’s software is OCPP-compliant, so it works with OCPP-compliant chargers. Before you buy hardware, confirm it supports OCPP.

How does load management avoid an electrical upgrade?

Instead of giving every charger its own full-power circuit, load management shares the capacity the building already has, adjusting each charger’s power as demand changes.

Who is this software not for?

It isn’t for a single charger at a private home, where a standalone charger may be enough, or for anyone expecting software to fix a lack of parking or a full electrical room. It pays off when several people share chargers, someone needs to bill them, or the building’s capacity is limited.

Which standards should I ask a vendor about?

Start with OCPP, which governs how chargers connect to software. Then ask about OCPI if you want drivers to roam across networks, OpenADR if you plan to join utility demand response programs, and a SOC 2 report if the vendor handles your payment and user data.