Hello and welcome!

As an electric mobility service provider or a large-scale charging point operator, adding new charging stations to your network is a crucial step in growing and managing your EV infrastructure. Whether you're onboarding a single station or importing multiple stations in bulk, this guide will walk you through every step of the process.

We will cover:

1. Prerequisites for Adding New Charging Stations
2. Roles Required to Add New Charging Stations
3. How to Add a Single Charging Station
4. How to Mass Import Multiple Charging Stations
5. Troubleshooting Common Errors

Let's start! 

1. Prerequisites for Adding New Charging Stations

Before adding stations, you will need to have a pool ready to assign the stations to. If you haven’t created a pool yet, please refer to our guide on Managing a pool of charging stations on Virta Hub here.

2. Roles Required to Add New Stations

You need to have one of the following roles to add new stations:

• Administrator
• Driver Manager
• Charging Manager
• Technician

Having these roles in your account ensures access to the required functionalities. 

To add a charging station, you will first log in to Virta Hub and navigate to the "Stations" tab. 
You will then click "All stations". On the right side under the "Available actions", click   "Add pool or station".

You have the option to add a single station to import multiple stations.

3. How to Add a Single Charging Station

To add a single station, you will select "Add single station". Pelase fill in the necessary information, including:

• Identity (IMEI): The unique identifier for the station.
• Pool: From the drop down menu, please assign the station to the intended pool.

Once all information is complete, click "Add and Close" to finalize the addition.

4. How to Mass Import Multiple Charging Stations

To add a charging station, click  "Import multiple stations".

Virta Hub allows you to easily upload a CSV file containing all the station details. To import Stations in Bulk you will:

• Download the example CSV template
• Fill in the following attributes: Identity, Vendor, Model, Connector, Name, Max Power, VPN, SIM Number, Current, Pool ID, Seller ID, Custom EVSE ID
  
• Save changes and upload the template
• Virta Hub will validate the information and provide feedback if any missing information or error is detected. To resolve any errors, please correct the missing information and upload the template again.
• Please double check if the pool ID correctly corresponds the intended pool of charging stations.
• Once validated, click "Submit" to add all stations to their respective pools.

5. Troubleshooting Common Errors

Let's review common issues and their solutions:

• Incorrect Station Identity:
  Please ensure the station's identity matches exactly.  Please remove any extra spaces or characters.
  
  

• Special Characters in Identity:
  Some charging stations can include special characters (e.g., * or @) in their identity, which can cause OCPP message errors. In this case, you can access the charging station's configuration interface, update its identity, and retry.
  
  

• Incorrect CSV Format:
  Please verify that your CSV file adheres to the required format. Missing or incorrectly named columns can prevent a successful import.

If these solutions don’t resolve the issue, please contact our support team of your charging device provider for further assistance.

Thats it!

You now know how to add single and multiple charging stations to your network and efficiently scale your charging network, save time and cost while avoiding common issues.