Feasibility and Benefits of Off-Highway Mining Trucks Electrification for Different Mine Profiles

While smaller vehicle categories in mining already offer various electrified alternatives, the electrification of large trucks used in open-pit mines remains less developed. Nevertheless, given the substantial annual fuel consumption of these vehicles, their electrification also possesses incomparable potential. We present a methodology for calculating fuel savings, productivity increase, and energy costs for different electrified powertrains of large mining trucks. The methodology is validated with actual measurements. Furthermore, it is applied to analyze the electrification potential in three selected open-pit case study mines. Different powertrain alternatives are compared using measured work cycles and one artificial work cycle of a possible future scenario of these case study mines as input. In the first mine, the adoption of a series hybrid electric powertrain with a 400-kWh energy storage decreases fuel consumption by up to 17%. A diesel-electric alternative with an overhead trolley line, however, reduces fuel consumption by up to 91% and even slightly increases productivity. The energy consumption of the second mine is reduced by up to 27% with a 200-kWh battery without trolley assist. When the expansion plans of this mine were investigated, several viable powertrain configurations were found, of which the downhill tech configuration is the most intriguing. In this setup, the vehicle would be driving empty uphill and loaded downhill regenerating more energy than is consumed driving uphill empty. This requires no recharging with a 600-kWh battery. The last third mine also achieves a considerable productivity increase of up to 26% with a trolley electric powertrain.