Australia hosted its first Open Charge Alliance (OCA) Plugfest this week. Charger makers, charging-software developers and energy companies met at the Canberra Institute of Technology from 21 to 23 October 2026 to test whether their equipment and back-end systems work with each other. The OCA described it as the first time the Plugfest has been held in Australia.

The event had two parts. The first day, 21 October, was a full conference day. The next two days were round-robin interoperability testing across three versions of the Open Charge Point Protocol: OCPP 1.6, 2.0.1 and 2.1, according to the OCA's registration announcement and the EVwire events listing.

A note on scope: when we researched this story, no test results or participant lists from the Canberra sessions had been published. This article covers the event, its agenda and who organised it. It does not cover outcomes.

What is a Plugfest, and why hold one?

The OCA says a Plugfest lets charging-station developers and developers of charging station management systems (CSMS, the back-end software that operators use to run chargers) test interoperability with several partners in one place. In a round-robin format, each team tests against a number of counterparts in turn rather than against one reference system. This tends to surface the differences in how separate vendors read the same specification.

Testing three protocol versions side by side shows where the installed base stands. OCPP 1.6 is still listed next to 2.0.1 and the newer 2.1, which suggests organisers expected participants to bring hardware and software across all three generations.

The conference day: grid, security and resilience

The published programme leaned heavily toward how chargers talk to the electricity network, not just to their own operators. Among the listed sessions were:

  • OCPP-to-DSO communications: how OCPP and CSIP-AUS work together in practice. This is the link between charging systems and distribution system operators, the companies that run local electricity networks.
  • Community observations from the Australian National University: ANU's observations on the process behind a recent whitepaper, written by the OCA and the Australian CSIP-AUS community, on best practice.
  • Local controller architecture under OCPP 2.0.1: including offline resilience, meaning how a site keeps working when its connection to the central system drops.
  • Cybersecurity alignment with Australian regulation.
  • An overview of the OCA Security Implementation Guide and Security Operations Guide, which the OCA's event page describes as covering 164 security measures.
  • Key findings from a Vehicle-Grid Network delegation that toured Europe and attended the EU Plugfest.

Putting CSIP-AUS on a protocol-testing agenda says a lot. In Australia, the question is not only whether a charger and its management software agree with each other, but also whether that software can work with the local network operator. The OCA and its partners appear to be treating these as linked problems.

Who organised it

The Canberra Institute of Technology hosted the event, organised in collaboration with Vehicle-Grid Network, Climate KIC Australia, the UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures, RACE for 2030 CRC and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), according to the OCA.

EV Infrastructure News reported that the event is supported by the ARENA-funded Vehicle-Grid Network. That outlet said the network's first industry roundtable, held earlier this year, identified unclear technical standards and caution among automakers as barriers to wider rollout. It also reported that an ARENA announcement on 21 October, committing AU$4 million to JET Charge for what the agency describes as Australia's largest commercial vehicle-to-grid deployment, coincided with the Plugfest.

What it cost to take part

The EVwire events listing, checked in October 2026, gave these prices:

  • Conference only: from AUD 300
  • Onsite tester, per team: AUD 800
  • Conference and testing combined: AUD 1,100
  • OCA members: free, with a discount code

The same listing gave the hours as 9:00 to 18:00 AEST, and the format as in person. It also mentioned a cheaper online tester option. The OCA's registration announcement said an observer programme would be available for people who wanted to see testing up close without bringing equipment.

What It Means for Drivers

Nothing changes at the plug right away. A Plugfest is a development and testing event, not a certification or a rule change. No published source says that any network, charger model or site will change how or where drivers can charge because of the Canberra sessions, and no results had been released at the time of writing.

The effects are indirect and come later. Drivers see OCPP interoperability when a site owner switches charging-software providers without replacing the hardware, or when a charger stays reliable because its firmware and the operator's back end agree on how to handle a session. The conference focus on offline resilience under OCPP 2.0.1 deals with a specific failure: a charger that loses contact with its central system. The OCPP-to-DSO and CSIP-AUS sessions deal with how charging may be coordinated with local networks.

None of these sessions, as listed in the programme, announced a deployment date or a requirement. For now, this is standards work that is under discussion, not something confirmed to be running at public sites.

Drivers and site hosts thinking about installing a charger should note that protocol support is a software feature, not an installation step. Any home or site installation should be done by a licensed electrician following the manufacturer's instructions.

What to watch

The open questions are the ones the event did not answer publicly: how many teams tested, which protocol versions had the most participants, and what interoperability problems came up, especially on OCPP 2.1. Another open question is whether the OCA and CSIP-AUS community's whitepaper work leads to firmer implementation guidance. ChargerFeed will report on any published findings from the Canberra sessions.

Sources