You monitor uptime through the management platform your networked chargers report to. The platform logs every port’s status continuously, so the work is a routine: watch the fault alerts, read the per-port report on a fixed cycle, and count uptime exactly the way your funding programme or contract defines it. A charger nobody watches fails silently.
Key Takeaways
- Uptime monitoring runs on the platform your networked chargers report to: status, fault alerts, failed sessions and per-port availability reports.
- Count uptime the way your funding programme or contract defines it — per port, over its period, with its exclusions.
- The U.S. NEVI rule is the published benchmark: above 97 percent per port per year for funded stations.
- A fixed routine — daily alerts, weekly reports, monthly review — is what turns monitoring into uptime.
What the Platform Records for You
A networked charger talks to its platform over a protocol such as OCPP — the connection explained in our guide to what charge point operators need from charger hardware. Four data streams do the work:
| Signal | What it tells you | What you do with it |
|---|---|---|
| Port status | Each port’s live state: available, charging, or faulted | Your live view of the site |
| Fault alerts | That a port has faulted, and when the fault began | Starts the repair clock — downtime runs from here, not from discovery |
| Failed sessions | Sessions that would not start or ended early, per port | Reveals ports that look available but fail drivers — payment and authorisation faults hide here |
| Availability report | Uptime per port over the reporting period | The figure you check against your programme’s or contract’s requirement |
The failed-session stream is the one operators skip. A port can show green while every second session fails to start — that port is down for half its drivers, whatever the status light says.
Count It the Way Your Programme Counts It
Uptime has no single counting method: the definition you are judged by is the one in your funding agreement or site contract. The clearest published example is the U.S. NEVI rule (23 CFR Part 680): funded corridor stations must average above 97 percent uptime per port per year, stay open 24/7, and accept contactless payment with no membership required. Programmes differ on what is excluded — an upstream power cut, for example — and on the reporting period. So fix three things in writing — the unit counted (per port, not per site), the period, and the exclusions — and make your platform’s report count the same way.
A Routine That Catches Faults Early
- Daily: clear the alerts. Every fault alert gets a first look the day it lands — triage it, mark the port unavailable to drivers if it is, and log it.
- Weekly: read the per-port report. Compare ports: one drifting below its neighbours is a fault developing, not bad luck.
- Monthly: roll up and review the fault log. Downtime per port against your target, repeat faults, time-to-repair. Repeat faults are a maintenance-plan problem — work them into the schedule in our commercial EV charger maintenance checklist.
- Close the loop. Detect, triage, dispatch, then verify the port is back in service on the platform — a repair visit nobody confirmed is how ports stay down for weeks.
Hardware That Reports Its Own Status
Monitoring only works if the charger reports. EVDANCE’s networked stations state the connection an operator needs: the EV-AC03201T dual-connector AC station (two Type 2 connectors, up to 43 kW shared, RFID) connects over OCPP 1.6J, so each connector’s status and faults land on the operator’s platform — one faulted connector does not hide the other. The EV-RHDC30K-L compact DC charger (22 kW, OCPP 1.6J) reports the same way. The platform itself is the operator’s choice; the charger’s job is to report to it. See the commercial charging range.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need special software to monitor uptime?
You need your chargers connected to a management platform — that connection produces the status, alerts and availability reports. The platform is a service you choose as the operator; the charger’s listing tells you the protocol it reports over, such as OCPP 1.6J. Confirm the report format matches your programme’s counting definition before you rely on it.
What counts as a charger being down?
Operationally, a port a driver cannot use: faulted hardware, a broken connector, a failed payment or authorisation path, or a network outage that stops sessions starting. What is formally excluded — an upstream power cut is the common case — is set by your programme’s or contract’s definition, so read that document.
How often should I check the reports?
Alerts daily, the per-port report weekly, and a full roll-up monthly or on your programme’s reporting cycle. Uptime is lost in the gap between a fault occurring and someone noticing.
Related Reading
- Commercial EV Charger Maintenance Checklist
- OCPP Explained: What Charge Point Operators Need From EV Charger Hardware
- How Do Commercial EV Charging Stations Work?
- How to Open an EV Charging Station: Step by Step
