VTT TECHNICAL RESEARCH CENTRE OF FINLAND LTD

Electrification – drivers,

challenges and lessons to be

learned from electrification of

public transport

Electrification in ports and vessels

Tekes Arctic seas workshop

Helsinki, Scandic Grand Marina 13.11.2015

Mikko Pihlatie, VTT (mikko.pihlatie@vtt.fi)

216/11/2015 2

Motivation – why are electric/hybrid vehicles

attractive?

Needs / drivers

Low noise and emissions vs. regulations

Competetiveness for fleet operators

Passenger comfort

Opportunities

Electricity: lower energy costs (but higher capital sot)

High utilisation rate (for commercial vehicles)

Value proposition

City buses are the ideal case for e-mobility: Route, schedule, range

Hybrid vehicles main benefits: Fuel savings (~30%), downsize main engine,

lower emissions, longer lifetime, higher availability

Reduced total cost of ownership – under which conditions?

316/11/2015 3

Ship electrification – motivation

To help reduce emission

Current Emission Control Area (ECA) in Europe

the Baltic Sea area and the North Sea area

To improve ship overall energy efficiency

under different operation conditions

EE

DI [g

.CO

2/te

.nm

]

Cut-off limit Capacity [DWT or GT]

Fig. 1: An EEDI reference figure of new-building ships enforced by IMO.

416/11/2015 4

The context of Electric Commercial Vehicles

(ECV) in Tekes EVE programme

• Transport and mobility are undergoing a transformation

towards electrification

• ECV was set up to support the development of the

innovation chain

• Finland has significant industry in the entire value chain

of electric commercial vehicles and machinery

• Comprehensive R&D network and development

platforms

ECV’s mission 2014-2015

From research to business together with

companies

Produce research that is useful for industry

Finding new businesses / business models

Enforce networking and national synergies

516/11/2015 5

Comprehensive steps into electrifying the bus

system

”Vehicles”

(eBus)

”System”

(eBusSystem

eCharge)

Pre-commercial

pilot (ePELI)

Commercial electric

bus operation

• Components

• Vehicular

technology

• Single vehicles

• Systemic view

• Charging technology

• Operation concepts

• A few vehicles

• Market dialogue: building

the business ecosystem

• Pre-commercial pilot

with operators

• Innovation platform

• Small fleet & charging

infrastructure

• Normal commercial

procurement

• Value chains and service

providers established

• Several bus operators active

• Charging infrastructure

available

HRT timeline: 2012 2014 2015 2016 - 2017

616/11/2015 6

TCO of electric buses – Espoo case(note: the results do not apply generally)

Ref: M. Pihlatie et al, Fully electric city buses – the viable option, IEEE IEVC 2014, Florence 17-19 December, DOI: 10.1109/IEVC.2014.7056145

TCO-competitive: Small

battery, opportunity charging

Expensive: Large battery,

depot charging

716/11/2015 7

Transport system analysis and concepts

System requirements and analysis

Vehicle/ship duty cycle, time table,

mileage

Concepts of operation

Characteristic load profile in the use case

”Topography” (peaks in consumption

/regeneration)

Power grid and refuelling infrastructure

Challenges: reliability, availability,

productivity, lifetime

Requirements for the use case

Technology solutions and choices

System engineering and optimisation

Bus stops

Ava

ilab

le

ran

ge

/Ba

tte

ry

So

C

Charging ChargingDischarging

(driving)

Automated charging

system

Time

Residual range

providing fault

tolerance

Automated charging

system

816/11/2015 8

Ports – Operating environment and equipment

Harbor layouts differ from each other

Environment is salty, watery, dusty, sandy, etc.

Operation must be fast due to high value of goods

Ship-to-shore cranes (STS) and Automatic Stacking Cranes (ASC) already

operate on electricity

Study focuses on ship-to-yard machinery

Shuttle/straddle carriers, AGVs, and terminal tractors

[1] [4][3][2]

916/11/2015 9

Ports – charging concepts

”The opportunity charging

concept utilizes waiting

periods between each work

cycle to charge the battery.”

Charging

concept

Opportunity Depot

Charging Every break Once per day

Battery size

(type)

Small (LTO) Large (LFP)

Charging power

requirement

High Low

Operating breaks Short or none Long

Operating range Short Long

Other Charging duration

depends on layout

Easy

relocationing,

battery swap[6]

1016/11/2015 10

Ports – TCO calculations and sensitivity analyses for

opportunity charging concept

*Comparison of only costs of

charger, battery, and electricity to

the cost of using diesel machinery

Assumes that a diesel-

hybrid model is modified to

a fully electric model)

Potential savings of around

50% compared to similar diesel

machinery

Investment payback time 1,6

years

Sensitivity analysis suggests, that a change in usage hours, fleet

size, and electricity price are most sensitive (affect total cost the

most)

! High charger price together with small fleet size raises the

cost significantly

Assumptions* Values

Avg power 40 kW

Usage per day 16h

Battery 40 kWh

Fleet size 5

Battery unit

price (LTO)

1000 €/kWh

Charger price 250 000 €

Battery and

charger lifetime

10 years

Electricity price 0,10 €/kWh

System

efficiency

75%

Residual value 0e

Discount rate 10%

75 %

14 %11 %

Costs

Electricity (4,57€)

Charger (0,86€)

Battery (0,68€)

Total cost 6,11€

11

Electrification of ships

1216/11/2015 12

Ship electrification – feasibility

Ships are rarely operated under design conditions

Ship electrification benefits the most for ships under changing

operation conditions

All electrical scenarios suitable for ships with very-short-leg “on-off”

operation profiles

Hybrid scenarios suitable for ships with variable operation profiles and

longer-leg “on-off” operation profiles

1316/11/2015 13

Ship electrification – application example

(Norled) ZeroCat – an all-electric ferry to float probably on the

water this spring

1416/11/2015 14

Ship electrification – global potential

Finland – Land of waters and islands (good pilot sites)

Strong maritime players, electric powertrains

Study the most viable use cases and operations

Charging and energy management

Utilisation rate as high as possible, commercial operation

Ecosystem creation and build-up of pilots: industries with R&D

All-electrical short-distance ferries

Hybrid ships running at sea/lakes

Hybrid icebreakers, better under

transient-state operating conditions

What about a fully electric ferry in

inner Helsinki (Kruunuvuori)?

Source: http://www.greenferryvision.dk

1516/11/2015 15

Summary and conclusions

Fully electric vehicles and systems are fast emerging

Electric city buses are heavy duty sweet spot in road transport,

other use cases and applications will follow

Hybrid working machines and vehicles demonstrate fuel and

related emission savings up to 30 – 40 %

Design and optimisation requires systemic approach

Value proposition: lower system-level TCO

What about electric&hybrid ships and marine vessels? Finnish

and international business?

Components, powertrain/propulsion systems? Yes / emerging.

Industrial players in the value chain? Yes.

R&D competences and facilities to support? Yes.

Should we find the sweet spots and go for it !?

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