EV charging management software is the cloud that watches thousands of chargers from different makers, finds faults, sets prices and decides when each vehicle charges. A charging network is mostly software. The charger is hardware, but running thousands of them is a software job. It is also called a charge point management system (CPMS).
Chargers from different makers can join one network because they use a common standard, OCPP. Through it, each charger reports its status, its faults and the energy it has supplied. The cloud sends it commands to start or stop a charge.
Consider a network operator in Chennai with 2,000 chargers from six makers. At 2 a.m., one charger reports a fault. The software tries a remote restart. If that fails, it marks the charger as out of service in the EV charging app, so that drivers do not drive to it, and it raises a repair request. In the evening peak, the software charges ₹18 a unit. In the daytime solar hours, when the operator itself pays less for power, it charges ₹12. So more drivers charge when power is cheap.
The software also keeps the operator's records. For each charger it shows how often it is used, how often it fails and how much it earns, so the operator can decide where to add the next charger. It can limit the power of a site that has only a small connection from the electricity distribution company.
The software also takes the money. It sends the bill to a payment gateway, which collects the payment from the driver's UPI app or card. Delivery fleets use the same system, to see which of their vehicles are charging, as in delivery as a service. It also works with battery swapping stations.
The software can also reduce the load on the power grid. This is the job of smart charging and V2G, which offers the charging load to a virtual power plant (VPP).