A charging station answers to several rulebooks: national guidelines, the state tariff order, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) safety regulations and the standards chargers are tested to. Here is the position as of September 2026.
No licence needed
Setting up and operating a charging station is a de-licensed activity: any entity can do it by following the Ministry of Power's Guidelines for EV Charging Infrastructure, 2024. You still need a connection from the distribution company (DISCOM) and the Electrical Inspectorate's (EI/CEIG) safety clearance before switch-on.
Battery swapping has its own guidance, so check which set applies if you plan to swap batteries instead of, or as well as, charging vehicles.
The Ministry of Power has issued guidelines for installing and operating battery swapping and charging stations.
Getting connected
DISCOMs must connect within 3 days in metro areas, 7 in other municipal areas, 15 in rural areas and 30 in hilly rural areas, or 90 days where the network must be extended or a substation built.
| Where the station is | Connection within |
|---|---|
| Metro areas | 3 days |
| Other municipal areas | 7 days |
| Rural areas | 15 days |
| Hilly rural areas | 30 days |
| Where the network must be extended or a substation built | 90 days |
DISCOMs must offer low-tension (LT) connections up to 150 kW for charging stations. Each station needs separate metering, and DISCOMs may provide sub-metering behind an existing high-tension (HT) connection.
Where the connection is the limit, a battery can let a small supply run a fast charger. See battery-buffered charging.
What you can charge
The national guidelines ask DISCOMs to supply charging stations on a single-part tariff no higher than the average cost of supply (ACoS) until 31 March 2028: 0.7 × ACoS in solar hours (9 am–4 pm) and 1.3 × ACoS at other times.
The Ministry of Power's ACoS-based tariff is a guideline to DISCOMs. In Tamil Nadu, the TNERC tariff order sets the EV rates billed (see In Tamil Nadu below).
Service charges at public and community stations are capped until 31 March 2028, excluding GST and land cost, and subject to annual review. Stations must display the rate.
| Charger | 09:00–16:00 | Other hours |
|---|---|---|
| AC | ₹3.00 | ₹4.00 |
| DC | ₹11.00 | ₹13.00 |
A driver at a public station pays the electricity cost, a service charge within the cap, any land cost passed through, and GST.
The Ministry of Power's EV Charging Infrastructure Guidelines 2024: the ACoS tariff guideline and the service-charge caps both run to 31 March 2028, and the caps are reviewed annually.
Standards and testing
Chargers must be type-tested at a NABL-accredited laboratory to the BIS standards in the guidelines' Annex I. When you buy, ask for that type-test report, not only the maker's data sheet.
Match the connector to the vehicles that will use it: CCS2 for cars and buses, and light-EV AC/DC or LECCS points for scooters and e-autos.
LECCS (Type 7), IS 17017 (Part 2/Sec 7), is India's combined AC/DC connector for light EVs (BIS, 2023).
- Grid connection and meter
- Charger and cable
- Parking bay
- Software link
Safety rules
The CEA's Safety Regulations 2023 give charging stations their own chapter (Chapter XI). Among other things, they require:
- No adaptors or extension leads.
- Socket outlets at least 800 mm above ground.
- The vehicle within 5 m of the charging point.
- Earth-continuity monitoring.
- Lightning protection.
- Fire-retardant, halogen-free enclosures.
- The owner ensures the maker's specified RCD and station tests are carried out.
- Inspection and test records kept for at least 7 years.
These duties sit with the owner, not the installer, so they belong in the operations and maintenance (O&M) contract from day one. Basement and fuel-station sites need extra approvals, such as a fire NOC or PESO approval, which we check for each site. See how we keep chargers working.
The owner of a charging station must ensure the maker's specified RCD and station tests are carried out, and keep records for at least seven years.
Protocols
The guidelines recommend open protocols such as OCPP, OCPI, UEI and OpenADR. Each does a different job:
- Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) links each charger to its management software: sessions, faults, remote resets and pricing. It is now an IEC standard (see below).
- OCPI handles roaming between networks, so a driver on one app can charge at another network’s station.
- UEI is an open, Beckn-based network for interoperable charging, launched by an industry alliance in April 2024.
- OpenADR lets a utility or aggregator signal when to reduce or shift load.
In practice: choose chargers that speak OCPP, so the choice of software stays yours and a charger can move to another platform without being replaced.
OCPP 2.1 was published as IEC 63584-210:2025; OCPP 2.0.1 was approved as IEC 63584 in 2024.
In Tamil Nadu
EV charging has its own tariff categories, LT-VII and HT-V, which include battery swapping and charging stations. Energy charges vary by time of day and are lowest from 9 am to 4 pm and highest from 6–9 am and 6–10 pm. Smart ToD meters are mandatory. You can take a separate EV service within existing premises, or charge within HT premises at the premises' own tariff. The FY2026-27 revision was pending as of 23 September 2026.
| Time (24-hour) | EV energy charge |
|---|---|
| 06:00–09:00 and 18:00–22:00 | Highest |
| 09:00–16:00 | Lowest |
| 16:00–18:00 and 22:00–06:00 | In between |
Which is better, a separate EV service or charging on the premises' own tariff, depends on when vehicles charge and on how much of your load already falls in the peak. HT-V EV charging is also excepted from the HT peak-hour surcharge described in our Tamil Nadu tariff explainer. We work it out for each site.
Subsidies
PM E-DRIVE: ₹2,000 crore of the ₹10,900 crore scheme is for public charging, with the charging component extended to 31 March 2028.
Under PM E-DRIVE, proposals come from central ministries, central public-sector enterprises (CPSEs) and states or union territories through their nodal agencies, which may set up stations themselves or select charge point operators (CPOs) by transparent bidding. Support depends on the location:
- Government premises with free public access: 100% of upstream infrastructure (the supply up to the charger) and 100% of chargers.
- Public-sector sites such as railway stations, AAI airports, public-sector fuel outlets, state bus stations, metro stations, municipal parking and NHAI or state toll plazas: 80% of upstream and 70% of chargers.
- Other locations: 80% of upstream.
- Battery swapping or charging stations: 80% of upstream.
For a private host, that usually means you can't apply directly. We follow tenders where we can take part as contractor or O&M partner. State incentives change, so we check what's open when we scope your project.
Planning a station? Tell us the site, the vehicles and how long they stop, and we'll check what the connection can carry. Start with the rules at a glance or talk to an engineer.