The Mobility House announced today it has fully commissioned an intelligent charging and energy management solution that will reduce the total cost of ownership for King County Metro’s new electric bus charging pilot by over $1 million dollars. The first-of-its-kind charging infrastructure pilot at the South Base Test Facility (Test Facility) was intentionally designed by King County Metro to test the capabilities of high-power plug-in and overhead chargers from three manufacturers – ABB, Siemens and Heliox – in support of their ambitious electrification plans to achieve a 100% zero emissions fleet by 2035. Metro leveraged The Mobility House’s energy and charge management solution ChargePilot® for its compatibility with all three brands of charger, as well as its cost-saving load management and smart charging capability.
"We applaud King County Metro for its commitment to bus fleet electrification, and we look forward to supporting them over the long term as they scale up to meet their goals over the next decade. Their pilot program is an innovative demonstration of the value of interoperability and smart charging and energy management. This flexible approach can be a model that will further propel the transition to electric buses throughout the U.S."
Gregor Hintler,
U.S. Managing Director, The Mobility House
Taking into account transit routes, operating times, local utility prices and power capacity, The Mobility House’s ChargePilot strategically optimizes fleet charging schedules to secure the lowest electricity cost while still ensuring the ongoing availability of each electric bus. Based on Seattle City Light’s local territory rates developed in conjunction with Metro, ChargePilot is anticipated to save Metro at least an estimated $9,457.20 per month on average in operating expenses.
The new chargers have a combined nameplate capacity of 4.63 Megawatts (MW), making it the largest transit bus charging station in the United States. As a result of modeling and evaluating the project goals (timelines) the Test Facility chose 2.5 MW of transformer capacity. The cost to upgrade the transformer could have cost Metro $900,000 to $1M and might have taken longer than two years to complete. Instead, ChargePilot’s local controller works to intelligently manage charging load and keep onsite power usage below the facility’s transformer limitation, obviating the need for utility upgrades and saving project time and money.
“In collaboration with The Mobility House, we will be able to experiment with and learn from a variety of hardware solutions that we believe will help us achieve our long-term electrification goals,” said Kevin Kibet, the manager of the project for King County Metro.
To learn more about The Mobility House’s global expertise in optimizing charging for electric fleets, including the one of the largest public transit charging sites in the U.S. and some of the largest fleets in Europe, visit: mobilityhouse.com.
About The Mobility House
The Mobility House’s mission is to create an emissions-free energy and mobility future. Since 2009, the company has developed an expansive partner ecosystem to intelligently integrate electric vehicles into the power grid, including electric vehicle charger manufacturers, 1,000+ installation partners, 80+ energy suppliers, and automotive manufacturers ranging from Audi to Tesla. The intelligent Charging and Energy Management system ChargePilot® and underlying EV Aggregation Platform enable customers and partners to integrate electric vehicles into the grid for optimized and future proof operations. The Mobility House’s unique vendor-neutral and interoperable technology approach to smart charging and energy management has been successful at over 500 commercial installations around the world. The Mobility House has more than 200 employees across its operations in Munich, Zurich and Belmont, Calif.
About King County Metro
King County Metro is the Puget Sound region’s largest public transportation agency. Metro provides bus, paratransit, vanpool, and water taxi services, and operates Seattle Streetcar, Sound Transit Link light rail, and Sound Transit Express bus service. Metro is committed to providing safe, equitable, and sustainable mobility, and prioritizing service where needs are greatest.