California has spent several years writing rules meant to make public EV charging more dependable. According to a review published by Canary Media on Oct. 29, 2026, those rules are "finally in place." The California Energy Commission's (CEC) EV Charger Data and Reliability Standards now set three main expectations for covered new installations. Publicly funded DC fast chargers have to support a common, open communications protocol (OCPP 2.0.1). Publicly or ratepayer-funded DC fast chargers have to stay up 97 percent of the time, measured port by port. And networked chargers have to send hourly data to the state in a standard format.

Alongside the rules, the state has paid for a place to test whether chargers, vehicles and software actually work together: the Capital Charge Yard in Sacramento, backed by a $4 million CEC grant.

The OCPP requirement applies to chargers installed from late September 2026 onward, just before Canary's article. This piece covers the OCPP, uptime and test-lab parts of the program. It does not cover the CEC's separate proposed amendments on Megawatt Charging System exemptions.

Where the rules came from

Canary reports that laws passed in 2022 and 2023 directed the CEC to enforce reliability and data-sharing standards for EV-charging installers that receive money from state agencies or regulated utilities. The CEC says it enforces the reliability and inventory requirements through the terms of its grant agreements. So the main lever is the funding contract, not a standalone penalty regime.

The CEC says the standards cover EV charging stations in general, with two exceptions: single-family homes, and multifamily properties with fewer than four units. The uptime requirement is narrower. It covers publicly or ratepayer-funded DC fast chargers (DCFCs).

Requirement one: OCPP 2.0.1

The Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) is the language a charger uses to talk to the back-end network software that runs it. That software handles starting sessions, processing payments, reporting faults and pushing updates. Canary, quoting Obrie Hostetter of the Center for Sustainable Energy, describes the reason for requiring version 2.0.1: the idea is to lessen the risk of chargers and drivers being stranded if manufacturers or network operators go out of business.

The CEC's two official pages give cut-off dates one day apart:

Both phrasings describe the same boundary in practice. Canary uses Sept. 28 and says the requirement applies to all publicly funded DC fast chargers installed on or after that date.

Requirement two: 97 percent uptime, counted per port

The CEC's performance standards page says its purpose includes increasing the reliability of publicly or ratepayer-funded DC fast chargers. Chargers must meet a 97 percent uptime standard, with defined exclusions. The CEC says covered chargers must comply for six years from the date of installation.

The definition matters more than the number. In the CEC's terms, uptime means the charger hardware and software are online, the charger is available for use, and the charger successfully dispenses electricity. A charger that shows as online but can't complete a session would not meet that definition.

Uptime is also calculated per port, not per station. Under a station-level measure, a site with one dead port among several could still score as available. Measuring each port separately closes that gap.

The CEC lists these causes of downtime as excluded from the calculation:

  • Vandalism, up to 10 days per incident
  • Loss of grid power
  • Natural disasters
  • Planned maintenance, up to 72 hours per year

For chargers installed by Sept. 27, 2026, the CEC page says uptime is reported semiannually. For publicly or ratepayer-funded networked DCFCs installed on or after Sept. 28, 2026, the standards page says enrolled charging network providers act as the recordkeeping and reporting agent. That puts the reporting work on the network provider, not on the individual site host.

Requirement three: hourly data

The Hourly Charger Data Reporting Specification is what makes the uptime number checkable: networked chargers installed after the cut-off send standardized reliability data to the state each hour. Not everyone likes it. Canary quotes an unnamed charging-network employee who called the rules "largely an onerous data-reporting exercise" that won't "move the needle on reliability."

Others in Canary's reporting see the data as the point. Hostetter said projects that use public funds need to reliably serve the public, and that collecting performance data is a vital way to ensure that. ChargerHelp CEO Kameale Terry told Canary that missing or incomplete data is a major challenge in charger reliability work. The disagreement is over how much reporting is needed to verify reliability, not over whether reliability matters.

The test lab: Capital Charge Yard

According to a CharIN press release published Jan. 20, 2026, the CEC awarded $4 million to Cal EPIC, working with CharIN, KERI and Momentum, to launch the Capital Charge Yard in Sacramento. CharIN describes it as California's first EV charger testing and interoperability lab. Its stated work:

  • Validating interoperability between chargers and vehicles
  • Assessing conformance to emerging standards
  • Evaluating future technologies such as vehicle-to-grid (V2G)

CharIN says it leads the interoperability testing and that the lab is funded through 2030.

On the lab's status: CharIN's January 2026 release said the lab was "expected to open later this year." Canary reports that it opened in August and names ABB, ChargePoint, EVgo, Hubject, Rivian and Tesla among the companies involved. ChargerFeed has not independently confirmed the opening date. Canary is the source for it.

The lab and the rules point the same way. The OCPP 2.0.1 requirement is meant to let chargers switch software providers, which depends on implementations working together, and a test site is the kind of place where interoperability can be checked before a charger goes into the field. Canary quotes Cal EPIC CEO Orville Thomas saying the aim is to "make sure that chargers work as they're expected, the first time that you plug them in."

What It Means for Drivers

The sources describe changes to how chargers are built, measured and reported. They do not describe changes to where drivers can charge. As the CEC and Canary state it:

  • Which chargers are covered: The 97 percent uptime standard applies to publicly or ratepayer-funded DC fast chargers. The broader data standards cover charging stations in general, except single-family homes and multifamily properties with fewer than four units.
  • When it starts: The OCPP 2.0.1 and hourly reporting requirements apply to covered DC fast chargers installed from late September 2026 onward (Sept. 28 per one CEC page, after Sept. 27 per the other). Chargers installed by Sept. 27 report uptime semiannually.
  • What "working" means: Under the CEC definition, a port counts as up only if it is online, available and successfully dispenses electricity, and each port is counted separately.
  • What doesn't count against operators: Outages from vandalism (up to 10 days per incident), grid power loss, natural disasters and planned maintenance (up to 72 hours a year) are excluded. A driver can still find a covered charger down for one of these reasons without the operator falling short of the standard.
  • Continuity: Canary reports the regulations are hoped to ensure that the next generation of chargers can swap software providers if necessary. The aim is to keep that hardware in service.

The sources do not give any figures on current uptime across California's network, any change to charging prices, or any timeline for publishing uptime data to drivers. None of those should be inferred from the rules.

Site hosts planning new installations should check their grant terms with the funding agency. Any electrical work should be done by a licensed electrician following the manufacturer's installation instructions.

Sources