Feasibility Analysis of In Motion Charging Trolley Bus – Smart Transportation Technology for Adama City

Abstract

Adama, located adjacent to Addis Abeba, is a megacity facing significant transportation challenges, including traffic congestion, air pollution, and a heavy reliance on automobiles such as three-wheelers and taxis. This hinders Adama City's credibility as a smart city because of its outdated transport infrastructure. To align with the goal of becoming a smart city with low carbon emissions and efficient mobility, the study identified Adama's vision. The feasibility study examined innovative alternatives that are compatible with the existing infrastructure. The zero-emission (ZE) In- Motion-Charging Trolley buses have emerged as an appealing option for Adama's transportation system. These buses leverage cutting-edge ZE technology and are more flexible compared to trams, and Battery buses. The study diligently identified and chose the three potential routes for feasibility analysis (College Transit, Bole Transit, and Amade Transit) based on route planning and design parameter ranging from population density, ridership demand, and accessibility(CBD, residential, and educational and route has been evaluated in ArchGIS. The study then examined the road network and electrical infrastructure along these routes to determine the key factors that impact road geometry, the operating behaviour of trolley buses, and the electrical power grid. The analysis revealed that Adama has a surplus capacity of 64 MW. Furthermore, three feeder lines capacity (K-01, K-02, and K-03) were evaluated in terms of their electrical capacity, which was found to be 6.5 MW. Plus, the road design, road traffic, and capacity of these three routes were reviewed. The study analysed the trolley bus's design parameters and operation conditions and carefully evaluated the best potential option. The chosen trolley bus is the Van Hool Exquicity24, which has a motor nominal power of 2 x kiepe TSA TMF 160kW at a speed of 70 km/h. the study modelled vehicle in Simulink and MATLAB to calculate the energy consumption along each route and obtained a peak power demand of 489.4 KW per bus under full capacity. The study also took into account the 10-trolley bus fleet, which has a peak power requirement of 4.894MW. The other factor is overhead wire design considerations that affect trolley bus operation, such as transmission lines, poles, and feeder lines which have been assessed and analysed for their compatibility with trolley bus overhead wire requirements. These elements have been evaluated to ensure they meet the necessary standards for trolley bus overhead wires. Based on the technical feasibility investigation, the study finally found that the Bole transit route is the most compatible route and A substantial investment of USD 6.775 million, or approximately ETB 385.625 million, has been estimated for the Adama City trolleybus system as currency exchange rate of 2024 1 USD worth of 57. After the bole transit has been most feasible, the study collected traffic data on the route and take APHTV and modelled and simulated the trolley bus along the route with existing heterogeneous traffic composition to analysis the compatibility of V2I and V2V with KPI of (delay, LOS, and queue) at with four different test in the VISSIM software and the simulation reveal that existing traffic already operating under the congested intolerable LOS F and addition of trolley bus make more worsen even though it has a positive impact in mitigating congestion and the study provided a dedicated bus lane on the route and with almost zero delay, best level of service LOS A and queue has been achieved for trolley bus, but other vehicle is under awful congestion and the study made a trade of mechanism to balance the traffic condition for other vehicle and originally taxis share about 50% in a place and by removing taxis the best level of service has been achieved for other vehicle and trolley bus with its dedicated lane and the model validation has been made and for any validation To ensure precision, the discrepancy in error between the simulated and actual data should not surpass 10%. In this scenario, the study achieved an error of just 8.52%.