ABB E-Mobility, a high-tech electrical services company, has signed a deal with Metrolinx to supply battery charging systems for seven Ontario transit agencies, including GOVA in Sudbury.
The bulk purchase of the ABB chargers is part of the comprehensive six-phase transit fleet electrification plan from provincial agency Metrolinx, an Ontario government entity set up to manage public transportation, said Metrolinx.
The contract with ABB is part of a Transit Procurement Initiative (TPI) run by Metrolinx. The TPI helps municipalities across Ontario reduce costs by coordinating their transit purchases and deliveries, said a news release from Metrolinx.
As part of this agreement, ABB E-mobility will provide approximately 57 plug-in chargers and nine pantograph chargers to the transit agencies in Belleville, Brantford, Kingston, Milton, Stratford, Sudbury and Thunder Bay, said the release.
The chargers will all be in depots and have charging speeds of around 150 kiloWatts. Some sources say this could charge a battery in 30-minutes or less.
Metrolinx said the contract terms run for three years and individual transit agencies may purchase the equipment at any point during that period.
Metrolinx said the contract was awarded to ABB on behalf of the seven Ontario transit agencies for multiple types of charging systems that will keep electrified buses and municipal vehicles powered up.
"This includes a wide range of charger varieties, from low-powered options for municipal and transit support fleet vehicles, all the way up to high-powered on-route charging systems for transit buses," said Metrolinx.
The deal also includes the option to purchase pantographs (overhead power lines) capable of delivering up to 600 kW for on-route charging. However, none of the participating transit agencies currently plan to install on-route pantographs, said the Metrolinx release.
Metrolinx did not include a dollar value of the TPI contract in the news release, but a news release from Electric Autonomy provided some possible costing insight.
“In 2023-2024, the TPI team managed the procurement of buses and transit-related goods and services worth $200 million on behalf of 22 municipal transit purchasers, resulting in savings of over $17.6 million for Ontario taxpayers, according to Metrolinx.”
Greater Sudbury doesn't have any electric buses at the moment. The city does have a plan to convert the entire GOVA Transit fleet to battery-electric by 2035. In 2022, Brendan Adair, the city's director of transit services, said Greater Sudbury was looking at "dipping its toe" into electric buses, speculating once could be purchase as early as 2023, but that actually hasn't happened yet.
