Fully battery powered electric drill
Reducing emissions from construction projects
Extensive electrification is crucial for the construction and infrastructure sector to reduce their emissions. Recently, thousands of construction projects in the Netherlands have come to a standstill because the rules for nitrogen emissions were not met. To reduce emissions from their projects, construction companies are increasingly using electric machines. But those machines need power, and oftentimes that still comes from polluting diesel generators. By also replacing these generators with green alternatives, construction projects can take big steps towards becoming more sustainable.
235 ton electric drill
Together with its clients, Greener wants to show what is possible in this area. This autumn, an electric drill was used when drilling a tunnel for new underground high-voltage cables in Breda. This drilling machine, weighing no less than 235 tons, was powered entirely by electricity from batteries. At the request of our long-term partner Voet Energy Solutions, we supplied several batteries and customized software to make this possible. The drilling project itself was carried out by Klever Boor- en Perstechniek.
Twelve 422kWh batteries
A total of twelve batteries were used for this project with a storage capacity of 422kWh each. The batteries were placed in pairs of three in trailers, each of which had approximately 1.2MWh of mobile electricity. In Culemborg, Voet Energy Solutions has established a charging location, where there is not only a grid connection (250-300kW), but the roof of the building is covered with solar panels. Here, the batteries were charged with 100% clean energy. The trailers alternately drove back and forth between the charging dock and the drilling location to supply the drilling machine with energy and then recharge. The aim of this project was to achieve a fully emission-free energy supply, which was successful. For a next step towards further sustainability, transport of the trailers with fully electric e-trucks is possible.
Customized software for an efficient charging process
In collaboration with Voet Energy Solutions, we developed the software that ensured that the charging process ran smoothly and efficiently. This software made it possible to control the three linked batteries in each trailer as one battery and to charge and discharge simultaneously. The batteries are controlled based on frequency, which must be kept constant around 50Hz. The advantage of this way of working is that the connected batteries provide increased reliability. If one of the batteries in a trailer fails, the setup can continue to operate without any problems. Ease of use was also taken into account in this project: both the batteries and the trailer were easy to switch on and off by telephone.