Montvale-based S44 announced Oct. 18 the launch of a first-of-its-kind open-source project – CitrineOS – that is aimed to rapidly accelerate the buildout of the nationwide electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure.

S44, a leader in EV charging software, said that the project will deliver critical back-end software required to ensure EV charge management compliance with Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) 2.0.1 and National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) standards. The company notes that the software is based on real-world EV charging use cases and the need to improve reliability – enabling widespread interoperability between charging equipment, vehicles and networks.

The announcement comes as the buzz around transitioning to EVs – as well as government incentives for reaching certain milestones – grows, but the process continues to be plagued by a lack of charging capacity as well as an unreliable and inconsistent charging experiences for consumers.

Company leaders say that the CitrineOS – which is available now on GitHub – can be used by everyone, from enthusiasts to the largest global charge point operators, fleet managers and car manufacturers, in a number of ways. That includes to: provision new charging equipment; complete charging transactions; remotely control charging equipment; monitor charger equipment uptime, power levels and degradation; and manage energy consumption and throughput.

The software also enables industry-wide collaboration on a single code base, increasing the ability to apply broad uses and fixes that will make back-end communication more reliable.

“Even with an experienced team, you’re looking at six to eight months to build NEVI-compliant EV charge management software from scratch,” said Julian Offerman, co-founder and CEO of S44, in a press release. “With CitrineOS, you can do it in a month. Democratizing access to the software is the only way to be fast enough to hit the state and federal certification deadlines.”

“Reliable, standardized and open back-end communication is key for commercial, fleet, public and autonomous electric vehicle charging infrastructure,” said Cliff Fietzek, board member of CharIN North America. “CitrineOS is a game changer for this communication, built natively on the latest charge point protocol standard, OCPP 2.0.1. Now anyone can leverage the open-source libraries to get to work quickly – to bring even legacy networks to OCPP 2.0.1 compliance.”

S44 invited different stakeholders to get involved in the project; more information is available here.