The board of directors of De Lijn has approved the allocation of an integrated charging and depot management system to German supplier PSI eBus for De Lijn, which is linked with PSI Group. This oftware package will play a crucial role in De Lijn’s fleet renewal: it will steer the e-buses’ charging processes and all movements of all buses in their depots. The contract value is € 11.2 million.
Against the framework of a sustainable Flanders, De Lijn will offer fully emission-free public transport by 2035. That means that about 2100 buses and more than 50 depots under De Lijn’s own control need to be electrified.
The strong price increase of electricity over the last year underlines the importance of optimising e-bus charging processes. In addition, Flanders will be moving towards a new price calculation method based on peak usage and the time of day when electricity is taken from the network. De Lijn has the advantage that its buses will be charged overnight, when electricity prices are at their lowest. Another benefit of spreading e-bus charging over an entire night is that lower peak consumption enables a reduction of the electricity grid connection cost. Especially at our larger depots, where 100 or more e-buses need to be charged, efficient manual charging methods are virtually impossible to manage.
“The software package that has been approved by the board is of crucial importance to ensure that the e-buses can take to the road and can be charged at the De Lijn depots”, says Lydia Peeters, Mobility and Public Works minister. The system determine at the end of each day which task it will be allocated the next day. This trip order enables the system to direct each e-bus to correct parking position, so that they can leave the depot in the correct order the next morning. The board of directors’ approval bring a step closer to implementing our sustainability targets.” In addition, the software will manage the entire charging process as cost efficiently as possible, starting from the SOC (State of Charge) on arrival and taking in account the next day’s battery requirements. The automated charging process will be initiated as soon as the driver connects the CCS2-plug at the right parking bay.
PSI eBus for De Lijn was the candidate supplier with the best financial offer. “With PSI eBus for De Lijn, we have a supplier with vast experience with other West European public transport operators”, says Ann Schoubs, De Lijn Director-General. “When we evaluated the tenders, it struck us how well this application could anticipate when facing unexpected situations. At De Lijn, our client is king. This system will enable us to further improve our service offering. That offering starts early in the morning, when our e-buses have to leave the depot with the correct battery charge level and right on time.”
“Fleet electrification is more than buying buses – background systems are equally vital for success,” adds minister Peeters. “De Lijn is avoiding this trap by investing in absolutely necessary software if we want to offer high quality emission-free public transport by 2035.”
