Calum Haslop, the New Zealand head of bus operator Kinetic, unveils the largest all-electric bus depot in New Zealand and Australia, located in New Lynn, West Auckland
Bus operator Kinetic has unveiled what it says is Australasia’s largest all-electric bus depot in New Lynn, West Auckland.
The company, which runs Auckland’s bus service for AT, already has about a quarter of the fleet running with fully electric Chinese-made Geely and CRRC buses.
Its new zero-emission bus (ZEB) depot at New Lynn has a fleet of 86 buses, powered by 44 charging stations.
One charge is good for 350km - equating to 10 return trips from Britomart to New Lynn via Newmarket on Route 24, which is serviced exclusively with ZEBs.
The depot uses about 23,400 kilowatt hours of power per day - the equivalent usage of around 1,200 households - mostly between 10.30 pm and 5.30 am.
Buses can in theory be charged quickly, or “zapped” over 30 minutes but most are charged over a few hours, usually overnight in off-peak periods.
“If we were to zap all of them at once over half an hour, nobody in the neighbourhood would be having a cup of tea, and we would literally be in trouble with [Auckand power distributor] Vector, so it would be in breach of contract.
“What we try to do with all our depots is to find a sweet spot.”
He said charging comes down to assessing what the vehicle needs and when it needs it.
“We want to do it slowly and off-peak if we can.”
The logistics of running an electric depot versus a diesel one are complex.
“All of a sudden we are in a regime now where it’s more like an airline when you need the right fuel loading for what the vehicle is going to be doing,” he said.
“If you get that wrong, then operationally you are in trouble.”
Getting it wrong can mean a fine from Vector or a breach of contract agreements with AT.
Bus operator Kinetic's new all-electric bus depot in New Lynn. Photo / NZME
Elsewhere in New Zealand about 10% to 15% per cent of Kinetic’s fleet is electric.
Over the next three to five years, Kinetic expects Auckland’s fleet to be about 75% electric.
The depot, which replaces a previous diesel-based depot, cost $8 million to build.
Haslop said in the early days of EVs, the industry tended to focus on the bus, but that turned out to be the easy part.
“What it’s all about is the depot: how you manage that infrastructure and how you lay that infrastructure out and how you optimise your charging windows and your systems to deal with all that.”
The New Lynn depot marks the second phase of Kinetic’s electrification project.
The company opened a smaller all-electric depot in Panmure last year and has another one on the drawing board for Glenfield.
