Purpose of EV Charging Data and Reliability Standards

  •  Improve California EV driver experience and confidence in EV adoption.
  • Increase the reliability of publicly or ratepayer funded Direct Current Fast Chargers.
  • Support reliability monitoring, uptime enforcement, and maintenance planning.

Direct Current Fast Chargers (DCFCs) installed after January 1, 2024 that received state, ratepayer, or federal funding passed through a state agency must comply with the Standards, with some exceptions. These chargers must comply with the Standards for six years from the date of installation.

These Standards exclude:

  • Chargers located at single-family homes and multifamily dwellings with 4 or fewer units.
  • Level 2 chargers (although publicly accessibly Level 2 chargers must display information telling users how to report an outage).
  • Temporary chargers, off-grid chargers and research chargers.
  • Fleet chargers (although publicly accessibly fleet chargers must display information telling users how to report an outage).
  1. 97% Uptime Standard
    • Uptime means the direct current fast charger hardware and software are online, the charger is available for use, and the charger successfully dispenses electricity.
    • Uptime is calculated per port, not per station.
    • Downtime due to vandalism (up to 10 days per incident), grid power loss, natural disasters, and planned maintenance (up to 72 hours per year) are excluded in calculating uptime.
  2. Operation and Maintenance Standard
    • DCFC sites must display a mechanism for customers to report outages and malfunctions.
  3. Open Charge Point Protocol 2.0.1 Certification
    • DCFCs installed after September 27, 2026 must support OCPP 2.0.1.

Semiannual Reporting

  • DCFCs installed by September 27, 2026 must submit uptime reporting on a semiannual basis.
  • 15-minute interval reliability data must be recorded and retained. These chargers may choose to submit hourly reliability data instead.
  • Semiannual uptime reports must be submitted as .csv in the specified format. Reporting cadence is the following:
    • January 1 - June 30 (due July 31).
    • July 1 - December 31 (due January 31).
    • The first reporting deadline is due January 31, 2027 for the period July 1, 2026 – December 31, 2026.

Hourly Reporting

  • Networked DCFCs installed after Sept 27, 2026 must submit hourly reliability data through the CEC’s AWS S3 portal.