A Study of Tallahassee StarMetro Electric Bus Fleet

Report Number

FSEC-CR-1989-14

Keywords

Alternative Fuel Vehicles; Buildings; Batteries; Electrical Loads; Electric buses; Public transit; CO2 emissions; Charging infrastructure; Operational efficiency

Abstract

Alternative fuel transit buses play an increasingly important role in the public transit services. Pure electric bus (EB) is the newest addition to the alternative fuel bus options. EBs use lithium batteries and electric motors as the energy storage and propulsion systems. Their CO2 emissions are lower than diesel buses, even when considering the CO2 emissions due to electricity generation and distribution at fossil-fuel power plants. The charging infrastructure is an important element in the EB adoption process. In this report, we studied the implementation of five electric buses by the Tallahassee StarMetro transit agency, and analyzed their one year operational data. We found that the EBs were four times more fuel efficient than the comparable diesel buses but the cost per mile was only marginally reduced relative to diesel buses, due to high electricity demand charges. Four approaches were proposed to lower the demand charge.

Date Published

9-30-2014

Identifiers

166

Subjects

Buses--Fuel systems; Electric vehicles; Local transit; Carbon dioxide mitigation; Transportation--Energy consumption

Local Subjects

Alternative Fuel Vehicles; Batteries; Buildings - Electrical Loads

Creator (Linked Data)

Raissi, Ali [LC]

Collection

FSEC Energy Research Center® Collection

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