Fully electric bus line in Pamplona: Preliminary analysis after 3 years operation.

By project POTEnT

Published on 04 July 2022

Spain

Comunidad Foral de Navarra

Pamplona

About this good practice

The Public Metropolitan Authority of Pamplona (MCP), managing among other public transport, electrified bus line 9 (south-north axis) connecting the train station with the Public University (UPNA). The line has 6 e-buses and two pantographs (fast charging stations with 350 kWe grid connection) at the beginning and end of the line. The pantographs are inverted, i.e. they are attached to the infrastructure, instead of to the bus.
The distance of the line is of about 6 km, with a 0.25% slope.
Vehicle model is Vectia Veris 12 Fast Charge, and the functioning is described in the attached picture.
In parallel UPNA installed a new PV plant (40kWp) on the top of one of their buildings, together with an electrical energy storage system. This installation will be integrated with the already existing microgrid at the university campus.
This installation will be connected, when it´ll be possible due to administrative regulations to the bus electrical charge station placed at the university campus. This connection will make it possible to analyze and develop the best configuration for a bus electric charge station when including a support stationary energy storage system and renewable generation.

Resources needed

- Electricity supply for the pantogrpahs € 205.000
- 2 pantographs € 483.000
- 6 e-buses € 2.415.000 (€402.000 per bus)
- Monitoring pantograps €12.000 and buses € 78.000
Total: € 3.194.584
MCP received funds from Government of Navarra (20.7%) and the EU project STARDUST for the monitoring (2%).

Evidence of success

Bus line 9 of Pamplona public transport network is the first fully electric line in Spain.
o It’s an interesting option, given the very small size of batteries (10%)
o The buses can’t have a diesel engine to follow the Clean Vehicles Directive
o Buses run with energy from renewable sources
o In the systems with inverted pantograhs, these are protected by the infrastructure.

Potential for learning or transfer

This is a good example on how to start moving towards an electrified system for public transport. However, many decisions have to be taking in the design phase. Some recommendations for transfer:
o It’s highly recommended to have the system fully charged in the bus depot during the night.
o Excessive rigidity in the bus lines design, due to the pantograph position in the street.
o Excessive rigidity in the management of the bus network, due to the impossibility to use the buses in other lines
o It’s necessary to use the pantograph 100% of the time. Each pantograph has the capacity to charge up to 9 or 10 buses.
o It’s very interesting if you link the pantographs to a self-feeding electrical system (solar or wind power). It’s likely that in the near future night electricity will be more expensive than daytime electricity.
o It’s necessary to design the line very accurately, comparing alternatives in operational issues, energetic costs and investments needed.