Rail Analysis India Dec Edition 2017 Digital Magazine | Page 94

Article | 93
94 | Article
There are also other form factors for campuses or city centres, such as the autonomous EV shuttle concept Olli launched by
Local Motors in collaboration with IBM Watson.
(Electric) Metro Systems:
Compared to other modes, Electric Metro has scale going for it. The Delhi metro carried over 1 billion passengers (with a B)
or 100 crore passenger trips. At an estimated average price of Rs. 16-20 per passenger trip, this translates to Rs. 1600-2000
crores / year of fare revenue.
The electric bus is of course designed principally for shared
transportation. Especially so when it can get through more
monetizable kilometers faster, like in Rapid Bus Transit (RBT)
systems where the buses have a dedicated lane on existing
roads. The incremental capex is only that of cordoning off
the road lanes, and building bus stations. Estimates of the
Ahmedabad RBT system incremental capex are about Rs.
8-9 crores/km which is a steal (1/20th or better) compared to
metro systems (eg: Kochi Phase 1 cost Rs. 220 crores/km
which is at the low end of metro capex).
One interesting tradeoff (pointed by George Sebastian in
the comments section below) is the amount and cost of
“stored electricity” vs overhead electricity. If you see a metro
or a tram line, it has overhead electricity throughout its line.
Whereas a charging station for a bus is at a point (eg: a
depot or intermediate bus stop). Perhaps an intermediate
tradeoff, especially with RBT model is to electrify certain
sections (rather than a point charging station). There are
some technical problems to overcome. Usually fast charging
standards use DC-to-DC charging from an external battery
source or transformer to an internal battery. You cannot
easily have exposed overhead DC lines since that will be a
safety hazard. Medium voltage (eg: 11 kV) AC lines are ok
but it means that the AC to DC conversion kit has to be in
the bus (a bulky piece of kit). May be worth R&D looking into
this, especially if the cost of external sections of AC lines are
cheaper than the saved battery costs on the short run. Even
if battery costs drop, the reduction in weight will be helpful to
increase range and reduce charging downtimes.
While China appears to be investing aggressively in electric
buses (see below), India appears to be playing the slower
growth game which is fiscally prudent. Ashok Leyland
recently launched a Made in India electric bus, the Circuit.
The good news is that by the next 2-5 years, capex for electric
buses will come down making it a more viable proposition,
especially in combination with the RBT model.
Interestingly the metro’s non-fare revenues (eg: via
advertisements monetizing its huge ridership) are higher
than the fare revenue, for a total over Rs. 4400 crores/year.
The capex is equally high at about Rs. 300-400 crores / km,
and 218 km, the metro probably costed Rs. 65000+ crores to
build (before operating expenses, and incurring high annual
depreciation and finance costs). Fares are also being revised
upwards to combat rising depreciation in recent years. In
terms of operating costs, power costs and labor are key
categories.
However, Delhi Metro has been innovative in power
procurement by recently purchasing low-cost solar power via
the open access method from a large solar park in Madhya
Pradesh. It is also aggressively installing solar panels on
its station roofs of tens of megawatt-peak. This is clearly a
combination of electric transportation, powered increasingly
by solar power (which is largely co-incident with metro
demand). Recently the Delhi metro also raised the price for
commuter fares to better balance its books.