Mercedes-Benz Energy delivers second life ESS for support of tram and e-bus charging sub station

Circular Energy Storage
Apr 30, 2021
2 min read

Merceces-Benz Energy, Daimler's subsidiary for remanufacturing and reuse of the group's EV batteries, has delivered a 500 kWh ESS in a sub station connected to charging of e-buses and energy management for the local tram network. The system, which is located in Hannover as a part of the GUW+ project, will offer possibilities to both avoid peak loads and the ability to temporarily store excess braking energy from the trams.

The system uses 20 modules which previously have been used in test versions of Daimler's fully electric eCitaro buses.

Using decommissioned bus batteries to support charging of the same vehicles makes a lot of sense, not least from a business perspective as OEMs can bundle both the battery management and charging solutions in a single offer to its customer. Bus batteries are also one of few EV battery applications which will be replaced during the lifetime of the vechicle, Daimler expect their batteries to last 5-6 years, and under same ownership.

MAN are trialing use of batteries from Volkswagen Passat GTE vehicles in a charging station in Hamburg while batteries from Irizar's buses will be used in EV-charging stations for cars in Spain. This is however the first time a fully closed-loop solution has been commissioned, where bus batteries are used for charging of buses. Swedish Batteryloop and Volvo Bus are aiming to do the same just like British Zenobe Energy which is financing bus batteries while they are operating energy storage systems which in the future can host the batteries when decommissioned.

Connected Energy has previously delivered ESS to support EV charging, using decommisioned batteries from Renault Zoe and Kangoo while EV Go are using batteries from BMW i3 at several charging stations in the US.