A little bit more
than 11 years after the demise of the trolleybus system, electric buses returned
to the ETS fleet in the form of battery electric buses. #8002 was the first to enter
service on August 4, 2020, departing from Century Park as a route 17 Southgate.
The steps toward this electric bus fleet began with the CNG bus purchase in 2012,
originating from the 2012 Budget deliberations in late 2011. The primary
purpose of the CNG bus purchase was to test the buses' performance in Edmonton's
cold weather as well as to evaluate the cost effectiveness, benefits, and risks of a
large scale implementation. The timeline was intended to allow what would become
the Kathleen Andrews Transit Garage to outfitted as a CNG facility during
construction.
With the CNG buses entering service soon, during the November 2012 Budget
meetings ETS was directed to provide a report on bus fleet maintenance. This
resulted in the ETS Bus Fleet -- Long Term Maintenance and Replacement Plan coming
before the City Council Transportation Committee on July 10, 2013. This report
covered 30', 40', and 60' bus purchases in addition to refurbishments from 2013-2033. Part of
this discussion would have included CNG's future within the ETS fleet. It was at
this time that the Committee directed ETS to undertake a Long Term Bus Fleet
Strategy which could potentially include new and emerging technologies.
The Long Term Bus Fleet Strategy report came back to the Transportation
Committee on March 5, 2014. There was no recommendation one way or the other on
CNG; that would be in a separate report. However, it was with this report that
administration revealed that they were working on a trial of full electric
buses, and by the end of April 2014 the two demo BYD buses were at DL MacDonald.
The fate of CNG was revealed on October 29, 2014 when a report to the
Transportation Committee recommended against CNG due to a lack of return on
the investment.
Following the conclusion of the initial trial of 2 Chinese-built BYD buses, a
winter trial was set up for 2015-2016 involving 2 BYD's and 1 New Flyer, in
comparison with 2 regular 2013 XD40's. One of the BYD's had diesel heaters, the other
electric (and it didn't arrive in time for the majority of the trial), and the New
Flyer had a diesel heater as well as an electric heater. The report from
Marcon released in June 2016 concluded that with some planning, the electric bus should be
able to perform as well as a diesel bus, emit less C02 than
a diesel bus, and perform effectively in an Edmonton winter with a diesel
heater. In particular they recommended trickle-charged (garage charging) buses:
"There is no significant difference in the lifecycle cost of substituting diesel
buses by trickle-charged e-buses. MARCON therefore concludes that it is
technically and economically feasible to introduce e-buses in the ETS fleet."
About a year later on June 30, 2017 a tender was issued. Initial quantities were
forecast to be 5 in 2017 and 20-25 in 2018. Closing date for the tender was
August 15, 2017, although that was pushed into September 2017. Needless to say,
these timelines did not come to be as first buses didn't hit the road until
August 2020! The tender stated a requirement of garage based, roof mounted
charging and a minimum 250km range at full GVWR.
Reasons for specifying roof mounted charging included less floor space, less
employee interaction (be it operator or maintenance personal having to plug a
bus in) and the ability to push more voltage through a pantograph then a cable
before it overheats, so that they can cycle a fleet through charging, with
charging happening faster (not so much the trickle-charging from the Marcon
report). ETS' forward thinking in regard to in-depot overhead charging would
lead them to be the first agency on the continent to use this system.
The original plan was to operate the first 5 buses out of Mitchell Garage (due
to previous electrical set up for the trials), but by September 2017 this had
changed to 7 buses out of Centennial Garage in 2018.
It was around this time that the TTC began a test involving New Flyer, Proterra,
and BYD battery electric buses, and would ultimately lead to the first Proterra
buses operating in service in Canada.
On August 23, 2018 Proterra was unveiled as the winner of the Edmonon electric
bus procurement for 25 buses. This was still almost 2 years from the buses
entering service. The Kathleen Andrews Transit Garage was originally slated for
opening (back in around 2012/13) in 2017 and was always intended as the primary
home for the first fleet of battery electric buses. Andrews would not open until
late 2019, so in the grand scheme of things this was minor.
While I'm not going to go into great detail on the specific number of vehicles
involved, the original procurement called for 25 buses (the Marcon report had
figures based upon 40 buses). This was increased to 40 with additional
provincial government funding, and reached a peak of 50 with 10 electric buses
tied to the Terwillegar Expressway bus lane addition, projected for delivery in
2021. With removal of certain provincial funding in October 2019, and buses
already on the production line and committed to the first 40, Edmonton had to
move around funding to fund the first 40 buses. It is assumed at this time that
the remaining 10 buses will not go ahead, but time will tell.
On September 17, 2019 the first of two Proterra CAT40DP's arrived in Edmonton as
initial trial, testing, and training buses. Their fleet numbers were 6014 and
6015. Delivered all white, they would later receive full wraps while in
Edmonton.
The first 21 production buses began arriving in Edmonton in March 2020,
with the remaining 19 delivered into the Fall of 2020. The buses
were used extensively on driver training out of Centennial Garage through to
July 2020. The buses were unveiled to the media on July 23, 2020 with the first
buses entering service out of Centennial on August 4, 2020. Following this,
training shifted to the Kathleen Andrews Transit Garage.
A note
on the model designation we are using of "CAT40DP E2 Max". The VIN plate shows
CAT40DP which breaks down as:
CAT= Catalyst family of products
40= basic length
DP= DuoPower drive train (2 190 kW motors, which is claimed to increase
efficency)
We are also including "E2 Max". Proterra has had a few model numbers over the
years, and have used numbers and letters to indicate charging scheme and battery
capacity in past model numbers and in advertising material. In this case, "E2
Max" indicates their depot charging 660 kW battery configuration.
Sources:
Report to Council April 24, 2012: Costs and Opportunities of Liquid Natural Gas
Buses (yes, misleading title as that is LNG, not CNG).
Minutes of Transportation Committee Meeting July 10, 2013
Report to the Transportation Committee on October 29, 2014: Update on Compressed
Natural Gas Buses (they got the title right this time).
Electric Bus Feasibility Study June 2016:
https://www.edmonton.ca/documents/transit/ETS_Electric_Feasibility_Study.pdf
Video recording City Council Executive Committee Meeting September 5, 2017
Report to Council September 2017 Capital Financial Update
EDMONTON TRANSIT SERVICE ORDERS 25 PROTERRA CATALYST® E2 MAX ELECTRIC BUSES
August 23, 2018:
https://www.proterra.com/press-release/edmonton-transit-service-orders-25-proterra-catalyst-e2-max-electric-buses/
Edmonton Transit Service Unveils Fleet of Record-Breaking Proterra Catalyst® E2
Max Electric Buses and Innovative Electric Bus Garages July 23, 2020:
https://www.proterra.com/press-release/edmonton-unveils-proterra-electric-buses/
ETS Electric Buses: https://www.edmonton.ca/projects_plans/transit/electric-buses.aspx
This page last updated on September 3, 2020