diff --git a/backend/app/database.py b/backend/app/database.py
index 233eeb5..9b1bb1b 100644
--- a/backend/app/database.py
+++ b/backend/app/database.py
@@ -3,7 +3,10 @@ from sqlalchemy import create_engine
 from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base
 from sqlalchemy.orm import sessionmaker
 
-SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URL = os.getenv("CS_DATABASE_URL", "sqlite:///./simple-ocpp-cs.db")
+if os.getenv("CS_DATABASE_URL", "invalid") == "invalid":
+    raise SystemExit('ERROR: Invalid CS_DATABASE_URL environment variable')
+
+SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URL = os.getenv("CS_DATABASE_URL")
 
 if SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URL.startswith("sqlite"):
     engine = create_engine(