Ottawa's electric buses have met expectations, city concludes

Four electric buses that were part of a pilot project have met the City of Ottawa's expectations and the technology is indeed a good alternative to diesel, staff conclude in a brief report going before transit commission next week.

The New Flyer XE40 model electric buses had no problem handling the work scheduled to drivers operating the city's diesel buses over the past year, OC Transpo engineers found.

The buses have regularly travelled routes for longer than 10 hours and more than 200 kilometres, they said.

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The results of that testing come after the City of Ottawa already approved a multi-year, billion-dollar procurement of 350 electric buses to transform the OC Transpo fleet and curb greenhouse gas emissions.

The city plans to buy 26 vehicles this year, but not until the Toronto Transit Commission announces the winning bidder of its request for proposals for zero-emission buses.

The city plans to adopt the same model of vehicle.

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After some initial waffling about whether to pilot the technology at all, the previous city council ordered the four buses and then pledged to buy only electric buses in 2021, before the local testing had begun.

Once the buses arrived, they were tested on streets without riders for a couple of months starting in December 2021.

The first electric bus then started carrying passengers in February 2022. Over the past year, OC Transpo hasn't had all four out consistently because it's been training operators, while also keeping the buses parked during the winter holidays.

Testing ran the gamut

Engineers studied various things, such as energy consumption, how far buses could go on a charge, and defects that would take one out of service.

They described how the buses use more energy when electric heaters run during the fall and spring. When temperatures fall below 5 C, an auxiliary diesel heater kicks in.

"Temperature conditions can reduce the efficiency of the e-bus by as much as 24 per cent, but the e-buses still meet minimum distance requirements," they wrote.

The engineers simulated different passenger loads by placing containers of water on the bus seats. They found that a bus at maximum capacity puts 15 per cent more demand on the traction motor — the biggest energy user on an e-bus — and said they'd keep monitoring how passenger load affects efficiency.

OC Transpo has plug-in chargers for the test buses, as well as two overhead pantograph chargers. Those ceiling systems have had some failures, though at their power cabinet and not overhead, an issue the city has been trying to resolve with the supplier.  

Engineers also performed a special winter test done during a snowstorm in January 2022, when nearly 50 centimetres of snow fell.

They got the buses to stop and start on several hills with limited plowing and no salt and reported the e-bus didn't get stuck.

As for drivers, the evaluation shows they're mostly satisfied — but did find the steering wheel was smaller than what they're used to.

The report goes before the transit commission on May 11.