Italy’s first electric bus depot equipped with Kempower charging solutions opened its doors in Via Ferrarese, Bologna, on the 25th of March 2024.

The depot offers up to 20 simultaneous charging points and it is operated by TPER (Transporto Passeggeri Emilia-Romagna), a top player company in net-0 mobility in Italy.

The project is a key milestone for the city of Bologna to comply with its objective to have a full net-0 public transport by 2030.

Bologna, Italy – Kempower strengthens its presence in Italy by delivering DC charging solutions to public transportation operator TPER’s (Transporto Passeggeri Emilia-Ro-magna) bus depot – one of the biggest bus depots in Europe with 500 vehicles. The depot opened its doors in Via Ferrarese, Bologna, on the 25th of March 2024 and it is It-aly’s first equipped with Kempower charging solutions.

The project is a key milestone for the city of Bologna, enlisted among the 100 cities of Horizon Europe’s mission, whose objective is to reach climate neutrality by 2030 – 20 years earlier than the deadline set by the EU with regards to environment, energy and climate.

Cities are home to 75% of EU citizens, consume over 65% of the world’s energy and ac-count for more than 70% of global CO2 emissions. The transition to a more sustainable public transport system plays a pivotal role not only in reducing emissions, but also in offering cleaner air, safer transport and less congestion and noise to their citizens.

Bologna is leading the net-0 public transport transition among Italian cities and the opening of this new e-bus charging site is key for the city to comply with its sustainability goals. At this site, TPER will charge 20 electric buses (12m and 18m lengths) simultaneously with five single-output Kempower Satellites to be used as an auxiliary charging point and with the possibility to charge up to 130 kW, and 20 Kempower Pantographs, with the chance to charge up to 300 kW.

“At TPER, our motto is that “a bus serves as a bus”, as to say that all our vehicles, including e-buses, must properly operate on their assigned routes. This is how we can ultimately ensure our efficiency and thus long-term operations,” Explains Mr. Monzali,

Technical Director for Infrastructure at TPER. “I was therefore looking for an utterly reliable charging solution for our e-fleet, to prevent any of our e-buses to stop at any time due to lack of power. The modular Kempower’s power unit and the related dynamic power management allow us to grant charging even in case a fault should occur. Failing power modules can even be remotely isolated for servicing, allowing uninterrupted operation for the rest. This is extremely important for us,” concludes Monzali.

As TPER expands its electric bus fleet, the demand for charging capacity at the depot will rise accordingly. Kempower’s modular and scalable charging solutions will allow TPER to easily increase the charging capacity at the depot, when needed.

“We’re grateful for the opportunity to contribute to TPER’s initiative to electrify the public transportation in the region. Electrification of public transport is an important step for the Municipality of Bologna when working towards its climate goals, and we look forward to further expanding our collaboration with TPER as the need for reliable charging solutions increase,” said Tommi Liuska, Chief Sales Officer at Kempower.