Zenobe, the UK’s leading owner and operator of battery storage, recently partnered with digital solutions company, Supercharge, to successfully build a charging system that can simultaneously power a fleet of 16 electric buses.
Electric buses, a clean alternative to their diesel counterparts, require huge amounts of electricity in order to be charged.
Electricity is costly to store once it has been generated, meaning in normal circumstances complex forecasts and estimations are required to keep supply and demand in balance for the whole network.
Plugging in 16 buses to charge at the same depot using electricity from the national grid has not been possible before, but Zenobe has tackled this issue with the help of Supercharge, successfully building a system that can efficiently charge a bus fleet overnight.
A stationary battery asset is situated at the bus depot, and this battery is charged while the buses are out during the day.
The product, built by Supercharge, is a system that balances the utilisation of the two energy sources (battery and national grid) to maximise grid usage without ever over-stressing it and also using as little energy as possible from the battery.
This means that more buses can be simultaneously charged overnight and be out on the road when needed.
As well as managing and optimising fleet charging, the software also provides data on each of the vehicles, their routes and their drivers.
Operators are able to give feedback to drivers and the software allows them to effectively educate drivers so that they are more energy conscious in their driving.
Image: Shutterstock
