Electric buses to have access to overhead chargers at Capital Metro’s south operation bus yard

The Capital Metro board has authorized the design and construction of charging stations at Cap Metro’s South Operations bus yard at 2910 E. Fifth St. The overhead charging stations will allow electric buses to park under them at the end of their day’s operation for recharging. The move that happened Nov. 21 follows a series of steps Cap Metro has taken toward making Austin’s public transport transition to zero emissions by the year 2035.

In September 2021, Cap Metro approved the purchase of 197 electric-powered buses. The board of directors unanimously approved the $255 million purchase from two manufacturers, Proterra and New Flyer. The manufacturers are expected to deliver the new buses in a period of five years. Cap Metro plans to modify its facilities with overhead charging where a bus can park under it to charge rather than be plugged in.

“This contract that we're bringing over to you is what the infrastructure needed in terms of charging for those new buses and our operating facilities,” Capital Projects Vice President Kenneth Cartwright said.

CapMetro plans to contract Proterra, the same company that it contracted last year to procure electric buses, to design and manufacture the overhead charging stations, but the stations can be used by any electric bus that is not Proterra design as well, Cartwright said.

Cartwright presented details about the plans in a report to the CapMetro board.

The North Ops facility at 9315 McNeil Road, Austin, already has nine chargers and 12 dispensers, and three additional chargers with dispensers are being installed. The go-ahead by the Cap Metro board allows the south facility at 2910 E. Fifth St, Austin, to move forward with installing overhead chargers in the south.

The 2910 South location will have a capacity of 48 electric buses. Cap Metro plans to design and install two 1.44-megawatt Proterra charging stations expected to be operational in 2023. The $4.6 million project with a 10% contingency is locally funded.

“Our existing chargers are plug-in chargers, but what we are converting to is overhead chargers. So our buses will be capable of being either charged overhead on the rooftop or be plugged in, but for the majority, for efficiency, we want to do overhead,” Cartwright said.

Cap Metro will construct a gantry structure to support the drop-down overhead chargers and add solar panels enough to generate 4.3 megawatts of solar power in the North Ops location at 9315 Old McNeil Road/Burnet Road, Austin, Cartwright said.

According to Cap Metro, each bus is expected to take about six hours to charge, but topping off could take as little as 14 minutes.