BUS ELECTRIFICATION Overnight Charging Overnight charging can benefi t agencies in diff erent ways. With overnight charging, buses don’t need to rely on making stops to get charges. Th is can prevent issues such as if there is a problem with the charging station or the bus, in the event that an issue did happen, it could cause a bottleneck of buses and slow service. “If you have a battery that charges fully at night and it’s fully charged, you can do your entire service all day without having to charge. Th at’s optimal,” said Austin. “You’ve got your service covered all day.” Overnight charging can also be ideal for agencies to cut costs or electricity consumption. “If you’ve got limited electricity supply you’re really going to need overnight charging because you “When you’re talking about an electric bus you have to look into more details.” -FRANÇOIS CHAMBERLAND, executive director of engineering, infrastructure and major projects, STM For more information, visit www.MassTransitmag.com/10065105 18 | Mass Transit | MassTransitmag.com | FEBRUARY 2017 lower costs,” said Song, “but the battery life is not good.” Holding Charges in Extreme Climates Many of the agencies that look into electric buses will not be in areas where they have perfect weather. Buses will have to adapt to heating in cooler temperate and cooling buses in extreme heat. Chamberland said that the amount that temperatures drop in the winter was a big factor — and will continue to be in both the different charging options that they look at and what type of electric buses that they choose. “For us, heating is a big concern if you use the electricity in the battery to heat up the bus then it won’t work. Heating is very consuming for the battery, so you really wouldn’t get the full range — about half the won’t get a very large charge at that level. If you’ve got a lot of power and its cheap and you can zap your buses, than in route charging is the way to go.” Riley said. Song added that Micovast batteries that do slow charging are idea for smaller routes. “It’s true that slow charging can provide
MassTransit_February_2017
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