Validation of electric vehicle charging station statuses

An apparatus for validating an electric vehicle (EV) charging station status, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• a memory coupled to the at least one processor and storing processor-executable instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:
• retrieve a status of an EV charging station of interest from a pre-stored database of statuses, each status in the database of statuses indicating whether there is an EV charging session occurring at a corresponding EV charging station;
• receive, from the EV charging station of interest, data comprising:
• (i) an energy meter reading, or (ii) a heartbeat signal, the heartbeat signal being sent from the EV charging station of interest when there is no EV charging session occurring at the EV charging station of interest;
• determine whether the data is inconsistent with the retrieved status of the EV charging station of interest;
• if the data is inconsistent with the retrieved status of the EV charging station of interest, send a request for an actual status of the EV charging station of interest to the EV charging station of interest;
• receive, from the EV charging station of interest, information about the actual status of the EV charging station of interest;
• determine whether the actual status of the EV charging station of interest is different from the retrieved status of the EV charging station of interest;
• and
• if the actual status of the EV charging station of interest is different from the retrieved status of the EV charging station of interest, change the retrieved status to the actual status in the database.