September-October 2022 - 40

PRODUCT PROFILE
AUTHOR Rebecca Kanable
Wireless Charging
for Electric Buses
AS PART of a $1.5 billion new terminal project at
Kansas City International Airport (MCI), the Kansas
City Aviation Department invested in a wireless
inductive vehicle charging system from Momentum
Dynamics Corporation.
Momentum powers all types of
electric vehicles using a modular platform
technology for the automatic
charging of vehicles. There's nothing
to plug into. Inductive charging utilizes
an inductive ground assembly
and an inductive vehicle assembly.
The ground assembly
can be installed flush
with the ground or
surface mounted.
" We are designing
and building a
modern new terminal
and we want to
make sure that its
support
infrastrucAn
MCI electric shuttle bus
approaches the wireless
fast-charging system.
MCI
ture does not detract
from the design, " said
Fleet Manager Aaron
Kaden. " Inductive
charging was not
only an efficient
solution in terms
of monetary outlay
and ongoing costs but was the only
system we found that can deliver
energy without
the traditional
plug-in infrastructure. "
With inductive charging, the fleet
of about 28 buses can stay in service
along the seven-mile loop. Two
300 kW wireless inductive chargers
will be located at the bus stops.
Bus drivers will park the buses over
the charging pads and charging will
begin within 5 seconds of the brake
being applied. Charging ends when
the bus departs from the pads.
" We have the first wireless charging
installation at an international
airport that we're aware of globally, "
said Kevin Fisher, director of truck
systems electrification at Momentum.
Wireless charging provides the
opportunity for a total lower cost of
ownership for the charging infrastructure
and helps facilitate high
utilization of the charging infrastructure,
he said. Another benefit
of the inductive charging process is
it demands less real estate.
" When you think of a conductive
charging with cords and plugs,
generally, they have the same power
electronics cabinet that we have, "
Fisher said. " They also have a pedestal,
with bollards around it to
protect it and then cords and plug
so you effectively diminish some
of your parking capacity with the
charging infrastructure. Our setup
has a power and electronics cabinet
and everything else is underground. "
Fisher described the process: " It's
magnetic resonant inductive charging
from the ground pad to the
vehicle pad. So it requires modification
or upgrading to the vehicle to
include our vehicle assembly, which
40 \ AIRPORT BUSINESS / SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022
connects passively to the vehicle
cooling system. We prefer to connect
directly to the high voltage circuit
in the battery management system
(BMS). We also deploy a direct connection
to CAN bus for the battery
management system. This approach
allows us to be OEM agnostic. We
rely totally on the vehicle BMS for
asking how much power and when.
It's totally relying on the BMS on the
vehicle itself. "
One charging pad is 600 mm by
600 mm, 65 mm thick and weighs
70 pounds. " That's the building block
of our modular setup and that's 75
kW, " he said. The number of pads
is dependent on the vehicle battery.
A four-pad, 300 kW system delivers
DC fast-charge Level 3 charging (24
to 300 kW, which Fisher said means
adding 75 to 1,200 miles of range and
30 to 40 minutes on a 60 kW battery).
" You hear about megawatt changing
that's putting a lot of power in
very quickly, " he said. " The faster
you push the power in, the more
damaging to the vehicle, and that's
not what this is. "
" ...The output is the equivalent of
a Tesla fast charger... When we need
more power, we add pad. "
To determine charging system
requirements, the operational flow
of vehicles is considered. " Airport
shuttles are usually running in a fairly
defined route and they only have to
charge periodically, " he said.
Jason Yan of BYD said MCI will
use the BYD K7M 30-foot electric
buses, which seat up to 22 people.
Batteries are iron-phosphate, and
the battery capacity of the K7M bus
is 215 kWh. With a fully charged
battery, the K7M can travel up to
158 miles.
New technologies will be in place
when the terminal opens in late
February or early March. 
September-October 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September-October 2022
