October’s releases give support and operations teams more of the answers they get asked for: why a driver’s card is refused, when firmware reaches a busy site, and which cards should not start a session at all. Partner billing is easier to follow from both sides, and operators get more say over who can use their driver app. CoOperator, the AI agent in the operator dashboard, received a major update of its own.
Featured this month: see why a card won’t start a session
A driver calls because their card is refused. The cause could sit in several places: the ID tag itself, the access rules on that charger, the roaming partner that issued the card, or a tariff that was never assigned to the EVSE. Until someone on the support team has checked each of them, the driver waits.
Why it matters
ID tag validation gives support and operations teams one place to check whether a card would be authorized, and why, without starting a charging session. A card that does not work can be investigated while the driver is still on the line, and access can be checked card by card and charger by charger when a network moves to AMPECO or a new site opens. The check covers your own ID tags and your roaming partners’ tokens, so the team does not need to know in advance where a card comes from.
How it works
An admin opens Validate ID tag from the ID tags list, from an EVSE, or from a roaming connection, and enters the UID the charger reads from the card. Your own ID tags are always checked, and the result says whether the tag would be authorized or rejected, with the reason. Selecting an EVSE adds that charger’s access and payment rules and shows the tariff that would apply, or that none is assigned.
To check a card issued by a roaming partner, include the relevant OCPI connections. The result separates the token information already stored for each connection, any setup problem on your side, and the partner’s live answer. Temporary conditions, such as an out-of-order EVSE or a driver who already has a session running, are listed apart from the authorization result.
Two caveats apply. Roaming checks send a real authorization request to the partner, so they run only for the connections you choose. And the result is a diagnostic: it shows what the platform would decide, not a guarantee that the session will start. Org admins and super-admins already have access, and other operator roles can be given the permission.
Also this month: CoOperator
CoOperator, the AI agent in the AMPECO operator dashboard, received a major update in October. Its investigations into failed sessions, refused authorizations, hardware faults and lost connections start from the full record. Context carries from one conversation to the next, and answers take into account the page an admin is working on. Admins can rename and pin conversations to keep the ones they return to at the top. Memory and page-aware answers are switched on for each organization through AMPECO support or your account team.
The full rundown is in What’s new in AMPECO CoOperator.
Network operations and monitoring
Firmware, power and session data each come with more control this month.
Firmware rollouts that keep clear of your busiest hours. Firmware update automations can run inside maintenance windows, set by weekday and time range in each charge point’s local time, and between a rollout start and end date. Updates can go to idle charge points only and be paced per location, with a cap on how many update at once and a delay between them. Each charge point gets a set number of attempts and an update timeout, and a waiting reason shows why an update has not gone out yet.
Circuit load history for dynamic load management. For circuits on AMPECO’s built-in dynamic load management, a chart shows consumption against allocation, capacity and limits over time, with a per-phase view on three-phase circuits. It helps explain slow charging and power that was reserved but never used. Operators can also give partners and sub-operators a read-only view of the circuits and meters that serve their own charge points, with other partners’ equipment masked.
Session validation for each part of your network. Session validation rules can use separate thresholds for energy, cost and average power on your own charge points and on roaming sessions, and separately for AC and DC charging. A depot that charges trucks can allow large DC sessions on its own charge points and keep a tighter limit for roaming. Sessions that should not be billed can be dropped from billing, by hand or by a rule, and restored later. A new rule flags sessions where little or no energy was recorded while the vehicle was charging, so billing can be held for review.
Payments, billing and invoices
Two threads run through this section: keeping unpaid debt from moving to a new account, and making partner money easier to trace.
Card-sharing protection. A driver cannot start charging if a card on their account matches a card with unpaid sessions on another account. The check is an operator setting that is on by default, including for existing operators, so opening a new account with the same card does not leave the debt behind. Operators on Stripe can also stop the same physical card from being added to more than one account. It adds to the fraud protection layers already in the platform.
Partner invoicing you can follow from both sides. Operators can record payments against a partner invoice and see whether it is unpaid, partly paid or paid, and what is still outstanding. Settlement reports raise one document per direction, an operator invoice and a self-billing invoice, each with its own number, payment status and credit note. Optional tables on the settlement report PDF show how a partner’s payout was calculated and which fees were deducted from each session. For accounting integrations, the partner settlement report API (v1.1) adds tax-inclusive totals, subtotals by category, tax per rate and a revenue sharing summary, so the figures can be taken straight from the report instead of added up record by record.
Invoices and settlement reports by tax country. With tax rules enabled, monthly invoices can be grouped by tax country, each with that country’s tax number and label, and settlement reports can be split by tax country so each partner invoice covers one country. The tax country is shown and can be filtered on settlement reports, and is included in the Public API and the settlement report webhook.
Connection fees with a session limit. A connection fee on duration and energy tariffs can carry a maximum session length and a maximum energy. Short sessions pay the fee and long or high-energy sessions do not, and roaming partners receive the limits as OCPI tariff restrictions.
Reports delivered to your SFTP server. Generated reports can be uploaded to an SFTP server as well as, or instead of, being sent by email. Each file’s delivery is tracked and retried automatically, with an alert if it finally fails, so finance and BI tools receive the reports without anyone downloading and re-uploading them.
Roaming
Choose which connection authorizes a roaming card first. When the same driver card reaches you through several OCPI connections to the same eMSP, you can set which connection is asked first and reorder them yourself. If the preferred connection refuses the card, the next one is tried. The order is a preference for the agreement you would rather use, not a rule that sends every session through one connection.
Fleet and workplace charging
Corporate billing discounts on a schedule. A partner’s corporate billing discount can be scheduled in advance, as a permanent change or until a date, after which a follow-on rate applies automatically. Each session keeps the discount that applied when it was billed, and schedules can also be managed through the Public API. Linked operators on the same platform can also opt in to cross-operator corporate billing, so the expense goes to the operator that supplied the charging, and that operator receives its own settlement report.
Clearer corporate billing coverage in the driver app. The driver app shows what a corporate billing plan covers: which countries, locations, location tags, partner chargers and charger types (AC, DC or both), and whether roaming is included. Where coverage is limited, the app explains which sessions go to the driver’s personal payment method. Drivers see a warning once their individual spending limit is reached, and operators can have an email sent when a partner reaches its corporate billing limit.
Bookings on private charge points. Bookings can include private charge points that have booking enabled, for users who have private access through a partner invite. That covers workplace and depot charging, and one booking can include public and private EVSEs together.
Autocharge on reserved chargers. With a new setting on, a reservation is linked to the driver’s Autocharge vehicle, so plugging in after reserving starts the session. Operators can also connect their own approval service, for example a check against a vehicle registry, which is consulted before a driver is invited to enroll a vehicle.
In the operator dashboard
Listings and bookmarks set up your way. Each admin can hide and reorder the columns on any listing and save the layout, and admins with the permission can set shared defaults for one, several or all operators. Bookmarks of any page sit in the sidebar and keep their filters and sort order, so a filtered list becomes a saved view.
Admin access management. Admin accounts can be deactivated or given an expiration date, after which no sign-in method works and the admin’s sessions and connected applications end, while their audit history stays. A security report lists every admin with their scope, status, sign-in methods (single sign-on, password, two-factor authentication, passkeys) and last activity, for compliance and off-boarding reviews. Audit logs record the IP address, device and authentication method of each sign-in. Admins manage their own profile, password and passkeys in My account, and SAML single sign-on can map values from your identity provider to account types, operators and partners. It builds on the role-based access already in the platform.
In the driver app
Time-of-day prices drivers can plan around. On standard time-of-day tariffs, the start screen shows the current price, when it ends and what comes next, and warns the driver when the energy price is about to change within the hour. A chart compares prices across the day, and after charging, the pricing details list only the periods the session covered.
Notifications for balance top-ups. Drivers get a push notification when an automatic top-up fails, so they can update their payment method before the balance runs out, and another when the balance is topped up. Operators can switch either one off per app, and drivers can opt out.
Control who can use your app. Operators can switch off self-registration, so only drivers they add can sign in and charge, which suits closed networks such as fleets and business customers. The Charge ad hoc option can also be hidden from drivers who are not signed in, while ad hoc charging stays available at payment terminals and in the web portal. Hiding the option needs a supported app version.
What’s next
AMPECO ships every week, and this edition collects the October releases worth a closer look. If you already run AMPECO, your account team can walk you through any of the updates above. If you are evaluating the platform, book a demo and we will show you the ones that fit your network.
