OmniE project
“Collecting, processing and analyzing mobility data is one of the main areas of research at Kempten University of Applied Sciences. One of the recent projects at Kempten University deals with the mobility analysis of electric buses.
The research project “OmniE – ICT Tool for System and Fleet Analysis for Electric Buses” started at the beginning of 2020. In addition to Kempten University of Applied Sciences, the other involved project partners are the Monalysis GmbH, EnergieNetz Mitte GmbH, Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology IEE, Göttinger Verkehrsbetriebe GmbH and Regionalmanagement Nordhessen GmbH.
When the European Union adopted the “Clean Vehicles Directive” in 2019, it increased the pressure on public transport companies to convert their fleets, at least partially, to vehicles with alternative drive technologies. In the future, the manufacturer-independent analysis tool OmniE will provide information and show substitution scenarios to bus fleet operators throughout Europe. Public transport operators will receive meaningful data on cost structures, CO2 savings and individual charging concepts, including information on the possible configuration, location and energy supply of the charging infrastructure. On this basis, they can more easily decide to what extent a conversion can be made for their operations.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andreas Rupp, Vice President for Knowledge and Technology Transfer at Kempten University of Applied Sciences, sees the project as a great opportunity to incorporate the innovative concepts developed at Kempten University of Applied Sciences for energy analysis and simulation of the buses. Specially developed data loggers record various measured values, such as the movement profile and the current number of passengers transported in the buses, among other things. These data are to be enriched with altitude information as well as environmental parameters in order to improve the developed energy model.
Monalysis GmbH, a spin-off from Kempten University of Applied Sciences, is coordinating the project and developing a web tool that can later help any other fleet operators to make the switch to CO2-saving vehicles easier. “In this way, we can reduce the risk of bad investments on the one hand and increase acceptance of this new technology on the other,” explains Benedikt Mundl, project manager at Monalysis GmbH. Public transport operators will receive significantly more security when converting their bus fleets.
Göttinger Verkehrsbetriebe GmbH will use the analysis tool for its bus fleet for the first time and hopes that the project will provide extensive support for the conversion to electric drives. “In Göttingen, the goal is to convert the public transport system to electric buses by 2030 and thus make a significant contribution to climate protection,” says Thomas Zimmermann, operations manager at Göttinger Verkehrsbetriebe GmbH. He adds that this represents a major challenge with enormously high costs. “Without the analysis tool to be realized in the OmniE project, which shows us all the important factors for a changeover, this would not be possible,” says Zimmermann.
The project is being funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy for three years with 1.5 million Euros.” OmniE started in January 2020 and is planned to end in December 2022.
At the moment the project partners are developing the Simulation Models and the Server-Infrastructure for the measured data.