Zoltan Adam Nemeth
CE4CE Pilots
Agnieszka Szmelter-Jarosz
Jan Roehl
There are six pilot activities in the CE4CE project covering different topics related to the circular economy in public transport, including predictive maintenance, digital twins and the re-use of materials. We spoke to Zoltan Adam Nemeth, Agnieszka Szmelter-Jarosz and Jan Roehl about their work in the project and how it could point the way towards a more sustainable public transport sector. Szeged: Zoltan Adam Nemeth is Chief of Public Transport and Railway safety at Szeged Transport Company (SZKT), which operates four tram and six trolley bus lines in the Hungarian city. EU Researcher: Why did SZKT decide to participate in the CE4CE project? Zoltan Adam Nemeth: In Szeged we have long relied on second-hand vehicles and used infrastructure materials in our public transport network, and we are interested in exploring new ways of reusing or lengthening the lifecycle of different materials, vehicles and spare parts. For example, our trolley buses use catenary switches on overhead wires, which have to operate reliably between 200-300 times a day. Towards the end of the lifecycle, they tend to get less reliable and need to be replaced. We are looking to apply older switches, nearing the end of their lifecycle, in areas where there is less traffic and lower safety requirements, for example in the depots. We are trying to extend the lifecycle of the older catenary switches, in order to save money. EUR: Are you also looking to extend the lifecycle of trams? ZN: In Szeged we operate Tatra KT4 trams, some of which are close to 40 years old. We have to keep these Tatra vehicles in operation, but the original producer of the door system doesn’t exist any more, so getting spare parts is problematic. Each door has an electronic unit which has inputs from sensors and also certain outputs. We aim to replace the previous door system with a new one with modern parts to perform the same function, and thus extend the lifecycle of the vehicle. EUR: What is the current status of the pilot actions? ZN: We started the replacement work on the trolley bus network in Spring, and so far six switches have been exchanged. With the door systems, there is a four-step process; we are getting towards the end and the first prototype is now in a test on a tram.
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Gdynia: Agnieszka Szmelter-Jarosz is Assistant Professor in the Department of Logistics, Faculty of Economics at the University of Gdansk. She is, together with Marcin Wołek, Aleksander Jagiełło (the same university), Dominika Kowalkowska, Agnieszka Jankowska (PKA Gdynia) and Jan Roehl (KRUCH), working on a pilot project in the Polish city of Gdynia. EUR: What is the main focus of your work in the project? Agnieszka Szmelter-Jarosz: We have been developing a digital twin to simulate energy flow to identify the ideal parameters for the operation of e-buses or trolleybuses by PKA Gdynia, a public transport company in the city. We wanted to find out what routes should be optimised first and how this will contribute to saving energy and managing energy in an optimal way EUR: Will this help transport companies assess what level of energy will be needed in different circumstances and then plan accordingly? ASJ: Yes, and it will be very different in different cases. We’ve looked at large numbers of scenarios and have a lot of data, on issues such as peak demand and which routes are prone to delays. We wanted to adjust the decisions of the company about electrification of routes to real-life data and possible scenarios. We also have to consider differences in energy demand between winter and summer, with a greater need for cooling in summer, and heating in winter. EUR: Are you also looking at the potential to include more energy from renewable sources in the overall mix? ASJ: It’s important to also consider the wider context – for example, PKA plans to put PV panels on the roof of the depot to cover a part of energy demand, especially when they are using new software optimising the energy use. We want to know the likely amount of energy this would generate in relation to demand and how it will impact the operational costs in different scenarios prepared within the digital twin.
Bergamo: One of the partners in CE4CE is ATB Mobility, a public transport organisation in the Italian city of Bergamo, which has a strong interest in the circular economy. ATB is responsible for managing the bus fleet in the city, while TEB operates the sole tram line, with another scheduled for completion by 2026. Jan Roehl is CEO of Kruch Railway Innovations, an Austrian company involved in several of the pilots within CE4CE, including those in Bergamo, Gdynia and Leipzig, looking to help tram and trolleybus operators work more efficiently. EUR: What is the main focus of your work in the project? Jan Roehl: We’re looking to help public transport operators consume less energy, for example by optimising driving settings, optimising the technical settings, and reusing energy. Modern vehicles generate energy when they brake, but currently much of this energy is lost without usage. With the digital twin simulation we could find ways to optimise and recover this energy. EUR: Are you also working with data gathered from trams during journeys? JR: In Bergamo we added sensors and computers on vehicles to extract live data. So we receive a dataset out of an operational vehicle every second – including its position and speed, as well as data relating to energy consumption, voltage on the line, ampage and kilowatt hours consumed. With that we can track the energy consumption and compare it with the simulation. EUR: Have you found significant variations? JR: In Bergamo, we found a more than 60 percent difference in energy consumption between the most and least efficient rides of the day, all in the same vehicle. Even small changes have a big impact on energy consumption, and that information can help drivers optimise their driving style to maximise energy efficiency, considering things like the acceleration phase, maximum speed, and the coasting phase. We can do this very specifically for each part of a route, telling them the optimal speed for different sections.
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