Participation in the Development of a Decision Model for Public Transportation with Electric Buses
Table of contents
Dresden, Saxony's state capital, also considers, besides the orientation of passenger transport towards public transportation, the use of electrically driven vehicles as an effective, traffic-related measure for compliance with its Clean Air Programme from 2011. Since 2006, the DVB AG (municipal transport company in Dresden)has used hybrid buses as part of its fleet. The introduction of hybrid buses was especially supported by the funding priority "Modellregionen Elektromobilität" (model regions electromobility) by the federal government and the Free State of Saxony. At the moment, the DVB AG operates 18 hybrid buses from different manufacturers and with different drive concepts and different storage concepts.
The Free States of Bavaria and Saxony both successfully applied for "Schaufenster Elektromobility" (showcase electromobility) with the motto "electromobility connects". The DVB AG (), together with the TU Dresden, is represented in this showcase with two projects, the "Elekrobuslinie 79" (electric bus line 79) and "Pilotlinie 64" (pilot line 64). In these projects, the technological aspects of electric drives and hybrid drives, their applicability in public transportation, as well as the efficiency enhancements in use are investigated.
In the project "Pilotlinie 64", part 6, an economic-ecological assessment model for the transition of a conventional bus line to an electrically operated one will be developed. In doing so, the question of whether or not a purely electrically driven bus is ecologically and economically preferred to a conventional diesel bus with a combustion engine is posed. Furthermore, the significant environmental impacts and costs as well as improvement potentials for the different life cycle phases are identified.
In order to conduct a holistic evaluation of the alternatives, i.e. diesel bus versus electric bus, the whole life cycles of both drive types are regarded, including not only the production, but also the complete use phases and end-of-life phases. For the selection of suitable bus lines for the modeling, a multi-criteria evaluation is used. This multi-criteria evaluation connects i.a. the methods of Life Cycle Costing (LCC) on the economic level and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on the ecological level as well as the evaluation of qualitative elements. The flow structure model of the Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) serves as a basis for both the LCC and the LCA. Furthermore, methods for the model validation and Multi-Criteria Descision Analysis (MCDA) are used. Eventually, the results of the above mentioned evaluation instruments are entered into a simulation model for the decision making of future electric bus lines.
For the evaluation of an electric bus operation, an advanced model of the technical design of the battery storage size and the recharging strategy is developed in cooperation with the IAD at the TU Dresden.
Contracting authority
Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe AG
Contractor
GWT-TUD GmbH
Leadership
Prof. Dr. Edeltraud Günther
Researcher
Dipl.-Volksw. Ramona Rieckhof
Term
5/2015 to 2/2016
Financing
Freistaat Sachsen, SMWA - „Schaufenster Elektromobilität“
Cooperation
Technische Universität Dresden, Institut für Automobiltechnik (Ansprechpartner: Dipl.-Ing. Alexander Bunzel)