Proviridis develops underground electric truck charging solution
Proviridis is a business partner of Kempower in France and is familiar with the Finnish charging station manufacturer’s technology. However, when planning a charging system at its own site in Saint Quentin Fallavier, Proviridis faced the challenge of retrofitting the existing car parks with charging points. Space was limited, and the parking spaces in the ‘multi-energy truck station’ were to be used by both diesel tractor units and electric trucks.
As there was no space on the ground for large charging points, the partners testes an underground solution as an alternative to a overhead charging point solution. The control unit from Kempower is installed in a shaft between the parking spaces and the charging cable is stowed in a solid metal pipe. For the test installation, it is painted in a striking yellow colour so that it is easy to see when manoeuvring. The 600 kW power unit is positioned a few metres away (as is usual for Kempower) and connected to the charging satellites by cable.
According to Kempower, another advantage is protection against damage if the control unit is hidden underground. Otherwise, the set-up corresponds to a typical Kempower system: the power unit can supply up to eight chargers – regardless of whether it is the underground control unit or the familiar charging satellites. A mixture is also possible, depending on the requirements of the parking space.
Kempower describes the successful test as “the first example of an underground solution being used to overcome the obstacle of space limitation at truck charging locations, and offers a cheaper alternative to procuring and installing the overhead gantry solution currently used at many logistics depots.” However, the exact cost of the installation is not specified. It could thus depend on the location in question as to whether the more extensive civil engineering work is actually cheaper than a gantry system. On a side note: it was designed so that it can also be used at a bus depot.
“Many fleet operators are committed to more sustainable operations, but they require solutions that maintain the capacity and normal functioning of their locations in order to protect their business,” says Cédric Moret, Kempower’s Head of Sales for the French market. “It has unfortunately become commonplace for some loss of parking space to become normalized when installing charging infrastructure, which is why we are so excited by the new possibilities created with Proviridis’ underground solution.”
Olivier Verdu, Technical Director at Proviridis, adds: “The product is durable across a wide spectrum of temperatures and conditions, requires minimal ventilation, and can cater for a wide range of customer needs. These are features which perfectly place the Kempower solution for this type of charging configuration in a logistics environment.”
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