Custom Payment Terminal Integration to Support Petrol’s Charging Network

Petrol is one of Slovenia’s leading energy and mobility providers, operating a large and growing EV charging network. As their network evolved, Petrol required a payment terminal setup that could support multiple chargers from a single terminal, integrate directly with their existing backend systems, and provide precise control over charging limits and session behaviour.

Standard payment terminal solutions did not fully meet these needs. Instead of adapting their operations to fit a generic model, Petrol chose to implement a custom approach that reflects how their systems and processes are structured.

At selected locations, Petrol uses centralized payment terminals positioned near groups of chargers. A single terminal serves multiple charging stations, reducing hardware duplication while maintaining a consistent user experience.

Drivers interact directly with the terminal to:

• Select an available connector
• Authorize payment using a credit card
• Accept the preauthorization before charging starts

The payment terminal communicates this information to Petrol’s backend system, which then passes the relevant data to Ocean’s CPMS, which then calculates charging limits, controls session duration, and starts charging on the selected connector.

Although the payment authorization happens outside the charger itself, charging behaviour remains fully managed and monitored at the CPMS level.

The implementation showed that payment terminals can be customized extensively while maintaining reliable and scalable operation.

By integrating the payment terminals with Petrol’s backend system, Ocean’s CPMS remains fully informed of preauthorization values and pricing context. This allows charging sessions to be controlled precisely, even in a setup where payment handling is decoupled from the charger.

The result is a payment terminal solution that fits Petrol’s operational model instead of imposing technical limitations.

For CPOs, payment terminals are often one of the hardest components to standardize across a growing network. Petrol’s approach shows how custom integrations can solve this challenge.

For you as a reader, this matters because it demonstrates that:

• Standard payment solutions may not scale with complex backend environments.
• Custom integrations allow terminals to reflect your operational logic, not the other way around.
• Backend control over charging behaviour remains intact, even with external payment authorization.

In practice, this means greater flexibility, better alignment with internal systems, and fewer compromises as your network grows.

Petrol’s implementation shows the value of designing payment terminals around real operational needs, where the result is a solution shaped by shared understanding between teams.

Rather than relying on a standard solution, the Ocean team delivered a custom integration with Petrol’s backend system that fits seamlessly into their existing ecosystem and supports both reliable day-to-day operation and future growth.