The challenge to the industry was clear - to create an entire public transportation system of the region with electric busses. Transdev/Connexxion, the public transport operator in this region, was committed to electrifying its entire bus fleet in Eindhoven. The goal was to charge 43 18-metres articulated e-busses while keeping the bus operator’s highest up-time and overall minimal adjustments.
A project with such a wide scope and magnitude for an e-bus infrastructure implementation, had not been successfully attempted anywhere in Europe, at that time.
This project was the very first large-scale implementation in Europe and deployed a total of 43 electric VDL busses. The implementation and commissioning of this project were completed in a short time frame of 3 months.
Heliox fast charging equipment was strategically delivered at the bus depot to create the most efficient and cost-effective solution for a project of this scale. Heliox supplied a fast charging system that relied solely on the Bus-Up solution. Both opportunity and overnight chargers automatically communicated with the busses through a roof-mounted pantograph creating a robust and a time-efficient charging system.
For overnight charging Heliox provided 12 Heliox FAST DC 2x30 kW chargers with 24 individual charging points. The 10 Heliox OC 300 kW chargers automatically downgraded at night as a cost-saving measure. SMART Switch, Heliox's latest innovation, was implemented to maximize charging intervals. Using the SMART Switch allows to charge two busses with one charger, while automatically switching from the fullest to the emptier bus.
As all charging took place at the depot, the customer had a compact solution for its infrastructure, while ensuring the busses were in regular operation. Additionally, Heliox has also provided 2 Heliox FAST DC 25 kW mobile chargers at the depot for maintenance and service use.
The Eindhoven project has been regarded as the largest electric public transport bus fleet in Europe and the world's largest opportunity charged fleet between 2016-2018.
Heliox and TU/e aim to develop an integrated solution that makes charging heavy electric vehicles accessible without negative consequences for local electricity networks. Together, we want to achieve this by developing and demonstrating a new, multiple and dynamic charging system for heavy electric vehicles that is equipped with software-controlled stabilization to absorb disturbances on the local energy grid.
The intended system will consist of a dynamically configurable charging system based on modules that can be connected in parallel, each with three 60 kW outputs. With this they want to be able to distribute the loading capacity dynamically over several vehicles. The charging system can therefore be used for opportunity charging up to 360 kW for a single vehicle as well as for regular charging of several vehicles.
In addition, smart software and a microcontroller board are being developed. The converter of the charging system can be used via this software to compensate for grid disturbances. The disturbances are neutralized via a low impedance path. This allows losses on the grid to be converted into usable energy, while improving the voltage quality of the grid. In fact, the system completely takes over the function of current power filters on the basis of smart control.
The challenge to the industry was clear - to create an entire public transportation system of the region with electric busses. Transdev/Connexxion, the public transport operator in this region, was committed to electrifying its entire bus fleet in Eindhoven. The goal was to charge 43 18-metres articulated e-busses while keeping the bus operator’s highest up-time and overall minimal adjustments.
A project with such a wide scope and magnitude for an e-bus infrastructure implementation, had not been successfully attempted anywhere in Europe, at that time.
This project was the very first large-scale implementation in Europe and deployed a total of 43 electric VDL busses. The implementation and commissioning of this project were completed in a short time frame of 3 months.
Heliox fast charging equipment was strategically delivered at the bus depot to create the most efficient and cost-effective solution for a project of this scale. Heliox supplied a fast charging system that relied solely on the Bus-Up solution. Both opportunity and overnight chargers automatically communicated with the busses through a roof-mounted pantograph creating a robust and a time-efficient charging system.
For overnight charging Heliox provided 12 Heliox FAST DC 2x30 kW chargers with 24 individual charging points. The 10 Heliox OC 300 kW chargers automatically downgraded at night as a cost-saving measure. SMART Switch, Heliox's latest innovation, was implemented to maximize charging intervals. Using the SMART Switch allows to charge two busses with one charger, while automatically switching from the fullest to the emptier bus.
As all charging took place at the depot, the customer had a compact solution for its infrastructure, while ensuring the busses were in regular operation. Additionally, Heliox has also provided 2 Heliox FAST DC 25 kW mobile chargers at the depot for maintenance and service use.
The Eindhoven project has been regarded as the largest electric public transport bus fleet in Europe and the world's largest opportunity charged fleet between 2016-2018.
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