On 22 and 23 September, the ESB Head Office was home to yet another great edition of the OCPP Plugfest & Conference Europe. Professionals from across 25 different nationalities gathered in Dublin, Ireland, to take a journey through the hurdles the industry has faced so far, the challenges of today and the future we will choose.
At the same time, participants had the opportunity to test their OCPP implementations with multiple testing partners, put their charging stations through a cybersecurity penetration test with a cybersecurity expert from ElaadNL, or attend one of the Face-to-Face working group meetings.
Let’s look back at some of the highlights!
A journey through the challenges of the EV charging industry
Drawing on Ireland’s storytelling tradition, the conference took us on a journey through time, built around the idea that every generation needs a common language to build the future. The three main acts of the conference all contributed to this story in their own way.
Act 1 – How we got here: from electrification to interoperability.
The first part of the conference focused on how electrification has evolved from national infrastructure development into a global and interconnected system.
A key message was that, as EV charging increasingly becomes part of critical infrastructure, open standards, interoperability and cybersecurity are essential to scaling electrification in a secure, resilient and trusted way.
Pat Fenlon, Executive Director of ESB Customer Solutions, welcomed all participants to Ireland and opened the story of electrification.
OCA Board Member and ESB ecars Head of Technology & Digital Products Peter Veale explained the evolution of OCA and how the industry came together to address interoperability challenges through OCPP.
Diarmuid Curtin from EY shared his perspective on the importance of building cyber resilience across energy, transport and digital infrastructure as eMobility infrastructure continues to evolve.
OCA Director Lonneke Driessen also presented the second version of the Security Operations Guide, helping to bridge the gap between technical specifications and the practical implementation of security practices.
Want to know what is new in Security Operations Guide Version 2? You can find more details here: Updated whitepaper: Security Operations Guide Version 2 – Open Charge Alliance
Act 2 – What we need to do: policy, infrastructure and energy system intergration.
The second act focused on how policy, open standards and grid flexibility need to work together to support the next phase of EV charging.
A key message was that scaling electrification requires not only more charging infrastructure, but also interoperable digital systems, reliable data, smart charging, DER integration and Vehicle-to-Grid capabilities to support both EV drivers and the electricity network.
John Byrne and Aja Teehan from ZEVI presented Ireland’s EV infrastructure and digital policy perspective. They explained how data, PKI, open standards and interoperability are becoming increasingly important as Ireland scales its charging infrastructure.
They also highlighted Ireland’s support for OCPP and the joint Ireland-Netherlands position advocating for broader adoption of open standards.
They were followed by Robert Power from ESB Networks, who focused on grid flexibility and the future energy system. He explained how smart charging, DER integration, energy management systems and Vehicle-to-Grid can help EV charging support network stability and greater renewable energy integration.
Act 3 – What future will we choose? Interoperability, security and scale
The third part of the conference brought the earlier themes together around one important question: how can the industry scale EV charging without losing interoperability, security or flexibility?
Lonneke Driessen outlined two possible futures for EV charging: one built on open standards, interoperability, cybersecurity, innovation and competition, and another characterised by fragmentation, proprietary systems and increasing complexity.
She also highlighted how OCPP 2.1, certification, security guidance, Plugfests and security testing initiatives can help support a more open and scalable future.
The panel discussion, moderated by Peter Veale, then brought the different topics of the day together. Lonneke Driessen, Diarmuid Curtin, John Byrne and Nodoka Nakamichi from Climate KIC discussed open standards, regulation, cybersecurity, grid flexibility, bidirectional charging, policy and the role of utilities.
Together, the discussion showed that scaling electrification will require close cooperation across industry, government and the energy sector.
Marguerite Sayers, Deputy Chief Executive of ESB, closed the conference by returning to the central message of the day: progress depends on shared infrastructure, a common language and collaboration, with standards and security playing an important role in enabling the next phase of electrification.
Curious about the content of the presentation given by the various speakers? The slides are uploaded on the event page on the OCA website: OCPP Plugfest & Conference Europe – Open Charge Alliance
Putting it to the test
During the two days of the event, Plugfest participants put their OCPP 2.0.1 and OCPP 2.1 implementations to the test.
Through a round-robin testing schedule, teams had the opportunity to test with multiple partners, identify issues, improve compatibility and learn from each other’s experiences.
An additional element at this Plugfest edition was the cybersecurity penetration testing provided by a cybersecurity expert from ElaadNL. Several onsite charging stations were put to the test, with the goal of identifying potential security vulnerabilities and giving participants additional insight into the security of their implementations.
An OCTT demonstration given by OCA’s technical editor Milan Jansen concluded two insightful days of testing.
Experiencing Ireland at its best
What comes to mind when you think of Ireland? Exactly! A traditional pub, Irish food, music and dancing, and a lot of fun.
That was the recipe for the cultural experience that concluded the conference and first testing day.
Conference and Plugfest participants had the opportunity to continue networking and sharing knowledge while experiencing Irish culture at its best at Johnnie Fox’s, one of Ireland’s best-known and highest pubs.
Their famous Hooley Night gave everyone a real taste of the Irish atmosphere, including a great Irish pub meal, live music and, of course, an Irish dance performance.
In Ireland, there is hardly a better way to end a successful conference and testing day!
Looking back on yet another succesful plugfest and conference
We would like to thank all participants for making the European edition of the OCPP Plugfest & Conference a great success.
Your questions, OCPP implementations, discussions and enthusiasm to grow together are what make these events. Staying connected and facing today’s challenges together makes our industry stronger, and events like these give us the opportunity to do exactly that.
A big thank you to all our guest speakers for sharing their insights, experiences and ideas.
And a special thank you goes to ESB for hosting the event and helping everything run smoothly!
Do we see you in Australia?
To wrap up the OCPP Plugfests and Conferences in 2026 there is one more edition to come. Will we see you down under? From 21 – 23 October, the final event of 2026 will take place. Curious about the agenda, speakers and testing schedule or do you want to register? Visit the event page on the OCA website: OCA Plugfest & Conference Australia – Open Charge Alliance.
