E-Bus Depots as Regional Flexibility Assets: Smart Depot Charging, Grid-Aware Fleet Operation and V2G Readiness

THE REGIONAL CHALLENGE WE WANT TO WORK ON

In most European cities the electrification of public transport is planned as a fleet procurement, not as a grid event. A single bus depot recharging overnight can become the largest new load on a distribution feeder, triggering connection-capacity constraints and reinforcement costs. At the same time, that depot is one of the few large, predictable and centrally dispatchable loads in the region, because it runs on a published timetable. We want to turn depot charging from a grid problem into a regional flexibility resource, and validate it with a DSO and a municipal operator in a real region.

WHAT BOZANKAYA TEKNOLOJI BRINGS (FIELD-PROVEN, TRL 7-9)

Timetable-driven charging optimisation (ICMS): energy demand forecasting from the service schedule and live vehicle data, real-time SoC monitoring, and charging prioritisation that explicitly respects transformer and grid connection limits.

Charging station software: CCS2-compliant charger controller software, communication and management layer, embedded HMI; developed against IEC 61851, ISO 15118 and OCPP 2.0.1.

Vehicle-side control: ECU/VCU/DDU embedded software for e-buses and trolleybuses, covering energy management, high-voltage control, regenerative braking and consumption analytics; ISO 26262 functional safety process, UNECE R155/R156 compliant, KBA certified.

Fleet operations layer (ITCS/AVMS): vendor-agnostic, ITxPT / IBIS-IP / GTFS-RT compliant, on-premise with no cloud dependency, open REST/MQTT interfaces. This is the data backbone needed to make fleet flexibility observable and verifiable.

Energy storage: ESS management software for depot-side buffering.

Deployed references: Napoli (70 vehicles, option), Timisoara trolleybus (33), Belgrade tram (25), Samsun tram (12), Istanbul metro (25 sets).

WHAT WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP IN THE PROJECT (TRL 5 TO 6)

Our current stack optimises charging within a fixed grid limit. The R&D step we want to take with partners is to make the fleet an active participant in the regional system: bidirectional / V2G control at vehicle and charger level, building on our existing ISO 15118 and OCPP 2.0.1 interfaces; a flexibility interface that lets a DSO or aggregator call on depot capacity as a dispatchable, verifiable and contractually bankable service without breaking timetable adherence; and coupling with depot ESS, local PV and, where relevant, the depot's own heating and cooling demand for genuine multi-vector coordination.

This addresses CM2026-08 target topics 1 (multi-vector integration of regional infrastructures) and 3 (regional flexibility and congestion management).

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

Distribution System Operator (DSO) or regional grid operator, for the congestion / hosting-capacity case and flexibility procurement.

Need Owner: a municipality, regional authority or public transport operator willing to host the demonstration. We can facilitate introductions to Turkish municipal and public transport operators for a replication site; a formal commitment would be established jointly with the consortium.

Research organisation for grid modelling, flexibility valuation and V2G impact assessment.

Partners for market design, regulation and social/economic research, an area we deliberately do not cover ourselves.

Aggregator or flexibility market platform provider.

A second region for replication, ideally with a different grid topology and regulatory regime.

WHAT WE DO NOT OFFER

To save everyone time: we are not a grid operator, we do not do distribution network planning, market design or heat-network engineering, and we do not manufacture chargers. We are the software and integration layer between vehicle, charger and operations centre.

Role sought: WP or task leader for fleet and charging integration, demonstration and system validation. Open to joining an existing consortium.

Contact: Ezgi Sanli, Project Specialist, ezgisanli@bozankaya.com. Bozankaya Teknoloji, ASO Teknopark, Ankara, Turkiye.