Introducing Electric Bus Fleets in Rio de Janeiro City Methodology and Analysis

This paper describes the establishment of a methodology aimed at planning the electrification of public urban bus fleets in order to characterize the operational requirements of the battery recharge process. Specifically, it deals with obtaining the behavior of demand and the necessary electrical energy for battery recharging. The effects on the electrical system peak and the resulting environmental benefits are also evaluated by comparing with current internal combustion fleets. An innovative method is applied to a fleet in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The motivation for this work is due to the characteristics of the Brazilian energy mix that is highly favorable to the electrification of urban transport with greater energy efficiency, with a view to reducing the impacts of internal combustion drive and the respective atmospheric emissions that are harmful to the environment. Also, this work offers the steps to establish essential elements, as daily, month and year energy consumption in order to recharge an electric bus fleet and data for the transportation bus company contracts an electric power distribution utility in Brazil. In spite conservative premises were considered, the calculations show electric bus option attractive. The operational energy consumption of diesel bus fleet is 19.10 MJ/km more than three times the consumption of electric bus fleet, this is 6.10 MJ/km. Additionally, 153 ton of fossil CO2 atmospheric monthly emissions are avoided. The results obtained indicate the need for public policies in favor of electric power and the environmental benefits of adopting electric buses.