Powering electric buses in Leicester

Customer Case Study

Powering electric buses in Leicester

86 Buses
6 MW
Leicester, UK

©VOR-J. Bollwein, 2022.

Challenge

Following the successful commissioning of the UK’s largest bus depot (Caledonia depot, in Glasgow), and in York, FirstBus commissioned Heliox as their charging partner for their brand new electric depot in Leicester. By 2024 is expected that the site has 100 fully operational electrical e-buses (totaling one third of the city entire fleet), which translate into a significant impacting on reducing public transport emissions in the city.

Solution

During this phase, Heliox provided a total of 39 chargers (29x150kW Rapid Modular Chargers; 12x 180kW Flex Dynamic Chargers and 2x 40kW Mobile Chargers, including 39 motorized motor reels). The complete charging solution totals 6MW and can charge up to 74 electric vehicles simultaneously.

The Rapid 150kW chargers are supplied with Autocharge and a PAYTER terminal, they are fully capable of charging all types of vehicles, from buses, cars and vans. This solution allows for the depot to be opened to Business-to-Business charging, providing much needed charging infrastructure that can be used by local businesses during working hours; this model has been proven to reduce the total cost of ownership. The EV charging infrastructure is supported through-life, by Heliox, with a 15-year SLA.

Results

E-mobility is becoming the focal point for more cities within the UK as the country looks to cement its position as a leading sustainable nation in Europe. In terms of public transit vehicles, First Bus has and continues to pioneer in this space.  Our joint efforts are a great example of how cooperation can take our decarbonization efforts further. Collaboration is what the industry needs, and we are proud that Heliox’s charging technologies are involved in this push towards net-zero emissions

This charging infrastructure will help to reduce the city’s carbon footprint by the equivalent of 91 tones of CO2 per year, and 44 tones of NO2 – a main component of air pollution

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Project Description

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.

Following the successful commissioning of the UK’s largest bus depot (Caledonia depot, in Glasgow), and in York, FirstBus commissioned Heliox as their charging partner for their brand new electric depot in Leicester. By 2024 is expected that the site has 100 fully operational electrical e-buses (totaling one third of the city entire fleet), which translate into a significant impacting on reducing public transport emissions in the city.

During this phase, Heliox provided a total of 39 chargers (29x150kW Rapid Modular Chargers; 12x 180kW Flex Dynamic Chargers and 2x 40kW Mobile Chargers, including 39 motorized motor reels). The complete charging solution totals 6MW and can charge up to 74 electric vehicles simultaneously.

The Rapid 150kW chargers are supplied with Autocharge and a PAYTER terminal, they are fully capable of charging all types of vehicles, from buses, cars and vans. This solution allows for the depot to be opened to Business-to-Business charging, providing much needed charging infrastructure that can be used by local businesses during working hours; this model has been proven to reduce the total cost of ownership. The EV charging infrastructure is supported through-life, by Heliox, with a 15-year SLA.

Zero Emissions

E-mobility is becoming the focal point for more cities within the UK as the country looks to cement its position as a leading sustainable nation in Europe. In terms of public transit vehicles, First Bus has and continues to pioneer in this space.  Our joint efforts are a great example of how cooperation can take our decarbonization efforts further. Collaboration is what the industry needs, and we are proud that Heliox’s charging technologies are involved in this push towards net-zero emissions

This charging infrastructure will help to reduce the city’s carbon footprint by the equivalent of 91 tones of CO2 per year, and 44 tones of NO2 – a main component of air pollution

Download our electric truck report