The Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) partnered with the State of Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) for a successful award under the Federal Transit Administration’s Low or No Emission Vehicle Program (Low-No). CTE is working with CTDOT and Wendel to deploy 10 battery electric buses (BEBs) in CTtransit Waterbury, a division of CTDOT, that will be a one-for-one replacement of 10 existing 35’ CTtransit diesel buses. Additional project scope includes the preparation of facility infrastructure to handle 100% electrification of the transit and paratransit fleet which includes the installation of ten (10) DC fast chargers.
Replacing diesel vehicles with BEBs will cut CTtransit’s greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 770 tons and reduce PM10 emissions by 18.4 pounds annually, leading to $40,500 in social cost savings per year, as per Executive Order 13990. This project will also test 35’ BEBs with snow chains in Waterbury’s hilly terrain.
CTE visited CTDOT’s facility in September 2023 to gather data for the requirements analysis and to conduct the project kickoff meeting. In the first quarter of 2024, CTE completed the bus and route modeling to guide CTDOT in making operational decisions and planning route deployments. During the second quarter of 2024, CTE completed charge and rate modeling. The charge and rate analysis modeled three (3) 180 kW chargers for the initial deployment to avoid the need for extensive additional infrastructure, which could have delayed vehicle deployment. The charge and rate modeling analysis informed charger design considerations by examining two scenarios: parallel charging and sequential charging.
Wendel, who is contracted directly with CTDOT, is currently preparing the design for the installation of the three (3) chargers. CTDOT will contract the installation work directly as well. The current bus procurement and build activities will be coordinated with the charging infrastructure installation. Once chargers have been installed and buses delivered, commissioning activities will be completed. CTE will complete a year of key performance indicator data collection and reporting once buses enter revenue service.
