EBusCharge - Flexible E-Bus Fleet Charge Management

Flexible E-Bus Fleet Charge Management

The Vorarlberg Transport Association (Verkehrsverbund Vorarlberg GmbH) sees the future of its bus fleet in battery electric buses (BEB) and is expanding to 60 buses by 2025 and a total of 100 buses in less than 10 years. The EBusCharge project at the Energy research centre is accompanying this ambitious infrastructure project, developing and researching technical solutions for the charging management of growing e-bus fleets.

Project Objective

The aim of the project is to explore important planning guidance for Austrian grid operators and transport associations for the successful integration of scaling e-bus fleets into regional energy systems. In doing so, the FHV- Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences, together with its project partners, is taking on the challenge of looking not only for a successful, but for a grid-friendly, infrastructurally sustainable and climate-friendly as well as economically optimal solution for the integration of e-bus fleets into the higher-level energy system.

Together, the project partners want to develop, test and evaluate smart charging strategies by investigating the technological constraints and needs at a currently available site in Feldkirch, with a focus on an operator solution. In addition, since the goal is a complete conversion to emission-free public transport, concepts for area-wide expansion will be explored. In a coupled distribution network simulation, fleet charging management approaches for all planned locations in the Vorarlberg region will be investigated. The effects and potential costs arising for the energy system, as well as the potential benefits of charging management, will be estimated.

"It is an opportunity for us here in Vorarlberg as a region to collaborate early on with all relevant partner:s on solutions for sustainable integration of e-buses into the energy system and to make the knowledge gained available to all."

Prof. (FH) Dr. Peter Kepplinger, Project Manager

Project Partners

-      E-VO eMobility GmbH as a provider of charging pole management systems

-      illwerke vkw AG as charging pole operator

-      Stadtwerke Feldkirch 

-      Vorarlberger Energienetze GmbH

-      Verkehrsverbund Vorarlberg GmbH

Support program

This project is supported by the Climate and Energy Fund.