How Availability Status Is Computed¶
Every station on the H2-Stations Map carries a live availability status, not one per station, but one per fuelling option the station provides. A station may be available for 700-bar cars while its 350-bar bus dispenser is unavailable. The platform recomputes these statuses continuously, roughly every 30 seconds, so what you see on the Map and in the Export API reflects the situation on the ground with little delay.
This page explains what goes into each computation and in which order the inputs are resolved.
Three Inputs¶
Each computation run combines three pieces of information about a station.
Operation status. Derived from the station record and its opening hours. A station is either open to the public, outside of opening hours, or not in public operation at all (for example, a station that is registered but not yet opened, or permanently decommissioned).
Monitoring status. Describes whether real-time signals are flowing for the station:
| Monitoring status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Not monitored | The station has no active signal originator, or availability transmission is disabled for it. No real-time data is expected. |
| Active | A signal has been received within the staleness window of 30 minutes. The latest signal drives the status. |
| Inactive | The station is set up for monitoring, but no signal has ever been received or the latest one is older than 30 minutes. |
Manual override. Normally no override is in effect and the transmitted signals speak for themselves. An override replaces the signal-based status with a fixed one. Operators set overrides by scheduling events: the event's availability impact, either limitedly available or in maintenance, applies as an override for as long as the event is ongoing. (A few further override values exist for platform-internal use and may appear in a station's recorded history.)
Resolution Order¶
For each fuelling option a station provides, the platform checks the following conditions in order. The first condition that applies sets the public status for that fuelling option. The remaining conditions are not considered.
| Priority | Status | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | closed |
Station is outside its opening hours |
| 2 | unknown |
No signal received within the staleness window (30 minutes) |
| 3 | unavailable |
The latest signal indicates the station is in maintenance |
| 4 | limitedly-available |
The latest signal indicates limited availability |
| 5 | unknown |
This fuelling option is absent from the latest signal |
| 6 | unavailable |
The latest signal reports this fuelling option as unavailable |
| 7 | available |
The latest signal reports this fuelling option as available |
If none of these conditions applies, the previous status persists.
A manual override short-circuits this resolution: while an override is in effect, it determines the status directly once the opening-hours conditions have been passed, regardless of the latest transmitted signal, even if that signal is stale or missing.
The Five Public Statuses¶
The resolution above always produces one of five public status values. This is what drivers see on the Map and what data users receive from the Export API:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
available |
The station is open and the fuelling option is available for refuelling. |
limitedly-available |
Refuelling is possible but subject to delays, restrictions, or on-site technician assistance. Check events for details, or contact the operator in advance. |
unavailable |
Refuelling is not possible. Check events for the reason and expected recovery time. |
closed |
Refuelling is not possible because the station is currently outside its opening hours. |
unknown |
The station is accessible, but the system has no current availability information for this fuelling option. |
See For Data Users for how these statuses appear in the Export API.
Stations Without Real-Time Data¶
Two situations look almost identical to end users but mean different things:
Not monitored. The station has no active signal originator, or its availability transmission is disabled. The platform does not expect any real-time data for this station, so no signal-based status can ever be computed. This is the normal state for stations whose operators have not (yet) connected a monitoring system, and for signal originators still in the testing phase of their onboarding.
Unknown. The station is monitored, but the data is currently insufficient: either no signal has arrived within the last 30 minutes (the transmission has gone stale), or the latest signal did not include this particular fuelling option. Here the absence of data is itself information: something that normally reports has stopped reporting.
In both cases the public status shown is unknown, since neither allows a statement about whether refuelling is possible. If you operate the reporting system for a station that unexpectedly shows unknown, the most common causes are a stalled transmission or an incomplete signal. See For Signal Originators for recommendations on sending signals.