Secondary Author(s)

Brooker, R. Paul; Raissi, Ali

Report Number

FSEC-CR-2060-17

URL

http://publications.energyresearch.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/FSEC-CR-2060-17.pdf

Keywords

Electric Vehicles; Electric buses; Transit systems; Fuel efficiency; Operational costs; Charging strategies

Abstract

Pure electric buses (EBs) offer an alternative fuel for the nation's transit bus systems. To evaluate EBs in a transit setting, this project investigated the five electric bus fleet of the StarMetro transit system of the city of Tallahassee, FL. For the study, the implementing strategy, route distances and timings, charging times, fuel economies, impact of chargers, and maintenance and operational characteristics were analyzed. The results were compared to a baseline five diesel bus fleet. The results showed that even with a four-fold improvement in fuel efficiency, the operational costs of electric buses were only 10% lower than that for diesel buses. The results showed that for EBs, the electricity cost due to demand charges was identified to be a major contributor to the electricity cost. To mitigate the high demand charges, researchers developed a method that can reduce the demand charge by optimizing the charging strategy. By using the optimized charging schedule, the demand charges can be reduced by up to 45%.

Date Published

3-22-2017

Identifiers

83

Subjects

Buses--Fuel consumption; Electric vehicles; Transportation--Cost effectiveness; Energy conservation; Urban transportation--Planning

Local Subjects

Electric Vehicles

Type

Text; Document

Creator (Linked Data)

Qin, Nan, 1983- [LC]

Contributor (Linked Data)

Raissi, Ali [LC]

Collection

FSEC Energy Research Center® Collection

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Rights Statement

In Copyright