Fast Charging Battery Buses for the Electrification of Urban Public Transport—A Feasibility Study Focusing on Charging Infrastructure and Energy Storage Requirements

The electrification of public transport bus networks can be carried out utilizing different technological solutions, like trolley, battery or fuel cell buses. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how and to what extent existing bus networks can be electrified with fast charging battery buses. The so called opportunity chargers use mainly the regular dwell time at the stops to charge their batteries. This results in a strong linkage between the vehicle scheduling and the infrastructure planning. The analysis is based on real-world data of the bus network in Muenster, a mid-sized city in Germany. The outcomes underline the necessity to focus on entire vehicle schedules instead on individual trips. The tradeoff between required battery capacity and charging power is explained in detail. Furthermore, the impact on the electricity grid is discussed based on the load profiles of a selected charging station and a combined load profile of the entire network.