Qbuzz, the public transport operator in Groningen and Drenthe, was committed to electrifying their entire bus fleet for city and regional transport in the region. Its goal was to charge a total of 164 e-busses: 45 Citea’s from VDL Bus & Coach, 59 Q-link from Heuliez, and 60 Ebusco 2.2 busses. Installation of the charging locations would occur within a relatively short timeframe and include a charging interface inter-operable between three different bus brands.
The network of e-busses cover public transport in the city of Groningen, but also take care of regional transit. This means that busses that drive on regional lines at larger distances, should be enabled to charge at intermediary stops.
In just eight months, a total of 19 charging locations were installed in Groningen, Emmen, and Assen: 15 at bus stops and four depot charging locations. Installation included a vast amount of construction work; adjusting platforms, constructing transformer stations, fitting extensive cabling, and building charging poles. Opportunity charging allows busses driving on regional lines and covering more considerable distances to charge at intermediary stops (fourteen chargers at 450 kW and nine chargers at 300 kW). Installations at the four depots included thirty-nine 2x30 kW, four 50 kW, and eleven 150 kW chargers.
Based on bus battery capacity, available energy supply, and transport strategy, Heliox developed a future-proof infrastructure to guarantee maximum uptime. This project highlighted the benefits of Heliox working in close collaboration with all partners, involving Qbuzz, VDL, Ebusco, and Heuliez. This is, to date, the largest introduction of electric busses in one go and will decrease CO2 emissions by 90%.
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.
Qbuzz, the public transport operator in Groningen and Drenthe, was committed to electrifying their entire bus fleet for city and regional transport in the region. Its goal was to charge a total of 164 e-busses: 45 Citea’s from VDL Bus & Coach, 59 Q-link from Heuliez, and 60 Ebusco 2.2 busses. Installation of the charging locations would occur within a relatively short timeframe and include a charging interface inter-operable between three different bus brands.
The network of e-busses cover public transport in the city of Groningen, but also take care of regional transit. This means that busses that drive on regional lines at larger distances, should be enabled to charge at intermediary stops.
In just eight months, a total of 19 charging locations were installed in Groningen, Emmen, and Assen: 15 at bus stops and four depot charging locations. Installation included a vast amount of construction work; adjusting platforms, constructing transformer stations, fitting extensive cabling, and building charging poles. Opportunity charging allows busses driving on regional lines and covering more considerable distances to charge at intermediary stops (fourteen chargers at 450 kW and nine chargers at 300 kW). Installations at the four depots included thirty-nine 2x30 kW, four 50 kW, and eleven 150 kW chargers.
Based on bus battery capacity, available energy supply, and transport strategy, Heliox developed a future-proof infrastructure to guarantee maximum uptime. This project highlighted the benefits of Heliox working in close collaboration with all partners, involving Qbuzz, VDL, Ebusco, and Heuliez. This is, to date, the largest introduction of electric busses in one go and will decrease CO2 emissions by 90%.
.png)