Research project trolley:2.0
Together with eight European project partners, the Chair of Electric Railways is cooperating in the project “trolley:2.0- for smart cities”. In this project the tried and tested trolley bus system will be equipped with new technology in order to advance the implementation of electric urban transport. In addition, the trolley bus infrastructure should function as a backbone of electric urban public transport, which will be accomplished through the construction of smart grids and multipurpose chargers. The main scope of the Trolley 2.0 project is to establish that battery-backed trolley buses are a way in the direction of electric, public transport systems in European cities.
Trolley-bus systems offer contemporary, emission-free, public transport for cities. Although the accompanying infrastructure costs are still high compared to standard diesel bus lines, trolley buses have significantly better environmental and economic performance under certain context conditions such as in high-load public transport systems, compared diesel buses. The next step is to implement battery systems in trolley buses to achieve partial independence from the overhead line and thus gain an even better performance in terms of profitability.
Since batteries have to be charged and the large amount of energy through fast charging methods have not always proven to be the correct charging method, it is worth taking a closer look at the properties and performance in-motion charging methods, of the battery-backed trolley buses. These buses are able to recharge the battery during operation under the overhead line and to pass gaps between overhead wires in the inner cities. In-motion charging is advantageous compared to fast loading operations as the lower charging current can contribute to a significantly longer battery life.
Furthermore, by charging the batteries in-motion, charging stations and related waiting times will be eliminated or significantly reduced, which can lead to a productivity gain for the buses. These demonstrations in Trolley 2.0 will evaluate and demonstrate new innovations such as smart grids, a new composite bus frame, automatic wiring technology or multipurpose charging stations based on existing DC infrastructure in trolley networks. Trolley 2.0 will develop tools, guidelines and recommendations for the design and operation of battery-backed trolley bus services under different contextual conditions and the development of smart grids trolley to a charging structure for new electric mobility in cities.
In this project the Chair of Electric Railways will be responsible for the project evaluation, as well as the scientific support at the local use case in Eberswalde. In Eberswalde a newly established In-Motion-Charging line, an automatic wiring system and a new multipurpose charger will be tested. The project runs from April 2018 to December 2020.
For additional information, please visit the project website or have a look at the project flyer.
