| Utilities Implement Diesel Hybrid Trucks |
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| Written by Guest Author |
| Monday, 09 May 2005 06:50 |
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The trucks are manufactured by International Truck and Engine Corporation. ComEd will place its hybrid bucket truck, which it demonstrated today, at its Chicago North Office later this year. The hybrid bucket trucks are targeted to improve fuel economy up to 60% compared to diesel-only fueled trucks. The utility will test the truck’s ability to reduce the length of power outages, as the vehicle can supply enough electricity to power several homes while crews investigate an outage. When field personnel operate a diesel-powered bucket truck, the engine must remain on when employees use the bucket. The new hybrid truck allows the operator to shut off the diesel engine and operate the bucket on an electric motor for up to two hours before the engine has to come back on to briefly charge the battery. As a result, considerably less fuel is burned and noise is reduced. About two-thirds of the fuel savings result from the engine being shut off at the work site. The initial powertrain couples an International in-line six-cylinder diesel engine with a hybrid-electric drivetrain, which includes transmission, batteries and electric motor. Other utilities participating in the project include:
NgEK - The Brains Behind the SystemsmThe control system for the Diesel Electric Hybrid PowerTrain was developed by NgEK, Cincinnati, Ohio. NgEK began development on the project in late 2002 and had an early production truck running by February of 2003. In June of 2003 the system was tested at the Southwest Research Institute vehicle dynamometer facility and demonstrated fuel economy and emission performance better than all previous prototypes. The control algorithm went from 'clean sheet' to the end customer is less than 18 months. The NgEK hybrid strategy absorbs the maximum amount of braking energy, and then determines when to use this energy to add electric torque at the optimal time to save the maximum amount of fuel. The system uses knowledge of the powertrain efficiencies along with current and historical conditions to select the best combination of diesel and electric power to provide as much as a 75% increase in fuel economy and a similar reduction in vehicle emissions. This technology currently accounts for over 82% of the market. The NgEK system has had no failures, a testament to the software quality and design robustness. |
| Last Updated on Thursday, 19 March 2009 06:10 |
As part of a national pilot program organized by the Hybrid Truck Users Forum (HTUF), Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) and PECO Energy of Philadelphia will be among the first utilities in the nation to test two new diesel series hybrid bucket trucks. Bucket trucks are also known as “trouble trucks”—utility work trucks with an aerial device. Both companies are units of Exelon, a $14-billion utility with a customer base of some 5 million.