Electric lorry in action: Fast charging on a rubbish collection tour

Its location may not be traffic-calmed, but it is central, at the heart of Lucerne: the Ibach recycling centre in Emmenbrücke. The municipal association Recycling Entsorgung Abwasser Luzern (REAL) is based there, right next to the busy entrance and exit of the A2 motorway.

System relevant for hundreds of thousands 
The association comprises 22 municipalities from the Lucerne region and Aargau. Over 230,000 people, around 110,000 households and thousands of businesses benefit from its services. REAL operates eleven recycling centres, one hundred neighbourhood collection points and two wastewater treatment plants. The municipal association is also an anchor shareholder in the Renergia waste incineration plant in Perlen.  

This means that REAL is considered systemically relevant regarding waste disposal security in the region. The municipal association is a role model and pioneer that impacts far beyond the catchment area. Following constructing the highly efficient Renergia waste incineration plant and eliminating nitrous oxide in the sewage sludge incineration plant in Emmen, it is expanding its commitment to climate protection in waste collection. 

Central Switzerland, with one of the largest e-truck fleets 
At the beginning of 2023, REAL added seven electric lorries to its vehicle fleet. The waste disposal contract also makes REAL a logistics provider with a total fleet of 14 refuse collection vehicles. There is also a hook lift for skips and replacement trips and a semi-trailer for glass collection. Two electric cars are used for assembly and service journeys. This is an essential step towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

There are also plans to replace seven more diesel vehicles. It is already clear that their powertrains will be an alternative. "Electromobility is well received by us and the drivers. We believe that alternative drive systems are the way forward in waste logistics," says Ueli von Moos, trained electrical engineer and Head of Waste Management at REAL. The current electric collection fleet comes from Designwerk Technologies aus Winterthur. The vehicle basis is the Mercedes-Benz Econic with low cab access and a total battery capacity of 450 kilowatt hours. 

The waste collection needs electricity 
Recycling logistics is virtually predestined for electrification, as the vehicles are emission-free when travelling in residential areas. REAL's diesel vehicles consume an average of 65 litres of diesel per 100 kilometres in collection mode. If this consumption value is converted using the calorific value per litre of diesel of 9.676-kilowatt hours, it corresponds to 628.94 kilowatt hours. The figure for electric lorries is only around 220 kilowatt hours. However, it is not only the more efficient drive that protects the environment and people. In stop-and-go operation, the electric lorries also significantly reduce noise emissions in residential areas thanks to low-noise starting and braking. This is an aspect that is widely accepted by the population. 

However, the electrification of recycling logistics is not without its challenges. The routes of the REAL trucks are between 80 and 150 kilometres long. The battery capacity is sufficient for two short day trips or one long one. A well thought-out operating and charging concept is therefore essential for these and other lorry and car fleets.

Vehicles at the charging point 
The recycling centre and the vehicle depot have a 315-ampere grid connection. The PV system on the roof supplies up to 450 kilowatts peak. This would allow 40 cars to be charged simultaneously with up to 11 kilowatts, for example. The sweeping tours usually start at 07:00 and are planned so the vehicles arrive at the depot after a tour with slightly less than 50% of the battery charge level. As the routes are often long-distance, the vehicle crews do not usually spend their lunch break on REAL's premises. This means that the trucks cannot be charged when the PV system usually has the best conditions for producing electricity. 

In other words, the grid's electricity supply must be managed to avoid peak loads for which the energy supplier has to charge high fees. To optimise cost-benefit efficiency, optimum charging times are also considered by offering more favourable night-time tariffs. REAL does not only rely on e-vehicles for its waste disposal operations. Employees also use electric vehicles for some of their journeys to work. Four 11-kilowatt AC charging stations are available at the office building with an 80-amp house connection. This charging capacity is sufficient due to the long idle times of the vehicles during the employees' working hours. As the installed systems are all scalable, it will be possible to expand to any additional car park that still needs to be electrified. 

A charging park with redundancy 
AC charging stations from the manufacturer Weidmüller were chosen to charge the cars. In the truck depot, REAL relies on three DC charging stations, each with two charging points from Kostad. The convincing price-performance ratio was also a decisive factor in the choice of supplier here. The operational concept provides for vehicles to be charged with up to 180 kilowatts of DC in emergencies, for example, to be ready for use at short notice after a night-time charging interruption. Mobile AC chargers are available for external use. The association also has a mobile 44-kilowatt DC charger from the truck manufacturer to ensure maximum operational readiness. 

«They are usually geared towards specific manufacturers, performance classes or interfaces,» reports von Moos, who explains, «Openness, scalability and dynamism are crucial for fleet companies of our size.» He is very familiar with this subject area, as even before joining REAL, he worked as a construction manager and later as a project manager in renewable energies and electromobility. With static systems, the maximum permissible total charging power is fixed. Dynamic charging management, on the other hand, is more complex but more flexible. It considers the current and current electricity demand when limiting the supply. The latter includes the available electricity from PV systems and, for example, your battery storage system, as well as time- and volume-controlled tariffs from the grid. Ecocoach has mastered this profession, as the company also offers the charging management system as a complete energy management solution, including building automation. 

Do not underestimate the design 
Other success factors in the provision of the infrastructure are the areas of design, planning and installation. BE Netz AG originally planned the electrical engineering, while the PV system was built by  Centralschweizerischen Kraftwerke (CKW). From the outset, the buildings were designed to integrate storage and charging technology. It seems worthwhile for architects and investors to consult the SIA 2060 datasheet and dimension grid connections in a future-proof manner. After purchasing the fleet, REAL had to retrofit bus meters in particular. Alsona planned the charging system. Elektro Schmidiger carried out the work. The entire charging infrastructure project took around five months after the obligatory tenders. According to operations manager von Moos, the work from the distributor and the cable route to the charging station was carried out flawlessly. 

Expansion already being planned
Even before the last diesel trucks are replaced, REAL is now tackling the next expansion stage. In future, electricity storage systems will ensure that the company's own PV electricity is utilised in the best possible way. The degree of self-sufficiency is already around 50 % today; with a battery storage system planned for the future, this figure is set to rise to around 80 %. The association also wants to provide balancing power for the grid operator if necessary. The association's top priority is security of supply. «This is just as guaranteed with electric vehicles as with diesel vehicles. After all, petrol pumps don't work without electricity either,» von Moos points out. Ultimately, new charging stations are also being considered directly at KVA Renergia, an energy producer. The electricity produced there is considered C02-neutral because waste heat contains no primary energy. Moreover, the refuse collection vehicles drive to the site every day anyway. 

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Holistic approach is crucial 

According to von Moos's project findings, planning is crucial. It is about more than the maximum charging current for cars and lorries. The trick is to consider energy and building technology as a whole and to optimise the networking of the technologies used. This requires holistic thinking from suppliers and dynamic charging and load management.

At the same time, it is advisable to involve all stakeholders - from accounting to scheduling and drivers - early. This means many challenges can be considered right from the start or incorporated later as optimisation measures. A small example of this is the activation of charging stations using a chip on a key ring instead of an app - in some cases, simplicity is simply more practical in everyday life. Because one thing seems clear: e-vehicles and infrastructure issues are here to stay.