Studies for a Hydrogen production station for a bus network

Context and challenges

This client is a public inter-municipal cooperation institution that groups together 20 municipalities around Auxerre and manages the transport and travel perimeter.

In order to anticipate the objectives of the law on energy transition for green growth and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the client is implementing a low-emission mobility policy as part of the overall ENRgHy project labelled "Hydrogen Territories" of the Burgundy-Franche-Comté region.

This commitment, which is part of the EOLBUS project, consists in particular in the creation of a hydrogen station and the gradual replacement of the buses in the community's public transport network, i.e. around 25 buses by 2023. With this in mind, the client wanted to build a hydrogen production and distribution station in order to acquire fuel cell buses.

The client appointed Assystem to carry out " state of the art " studies, tendering (Company Consultation Documents) and Assistance for the awarding of Works Contracts within the framework of a project management assistance.

Project scope

Providing expertise on the methodology for adapting the bus network and existing infrastructure to accommodate hydrogen-powered buses. This mission was carried out in two parts:

The first part consisted of an inventory and a diagnosis of the current fleet in order to precisely identify the need in terms of operation and the main characteristics of the hydrogen distribution station (filling time, autonomy in case of supply deficit, etc.) then the drafting of the tendering documentation accordingly.
The second part of the mission was the analysis of the offers obtained from the candidates, both administrative and technical. The completeness of the candidates' answers following this consultation was analysed in order to ask the appropriate questions during the negotiation phase and then to analyse the final offers of the selected candidates.

Results

Possibility of future creation and commissioning of a hydrogen production and distribution station as well as its operation and maintenance for 5 standard buses (5 more in 2024) thanks to the increased skills of the customer's teams in the field of hydrogen mobility.
Securing the assembly of the hydrogen bus project thanks to the feedback from the consultation, particularly with regard to a good understanding of the financial stakes involved.
Provision of lighting and solutions for bus maintenance thanks to the inventory and diagnosis of the bus fleet