‘City grid’ smart transport system1 SMARTER CITIES- SMARTER TRANSPORT

1.1 INTRODUCTIONSmart cities of the future require a completely different approach to utilization of energy than conventional wisdom will suggest, green buildings that provide lighting with mirrors at minimal costs and small scale water cleaning technologies have revolutionized the way smart cities are utilizing lowest energy costs. But one major flaw in every city of the future has been the transport, mass transportation like internal rails are good alternatives but with billions of vehicles plying the roads, it’s time to rethink highway commutation for smart cities.

1.2 NEED FOR THE IDEA:With global pollution levels alarmingly high and fossil fuels nearly depleted, there seems to be a renewed focus on vehicles running on renewable energy sources. There has been a huge surge in the number of electric vehicles on road due to the inherent advantage of ample availability of electricity and no pollution but the single biggest issue has also arisen in the fold due to the concern over one component “Battery”. The global installed base of EV charging stations is set to reach more than 1.1 million units worldwide by the end of this year. The average range of e-vehicles is 120-300 miles and the average life of a battery pack costing 250$ per kilowatt hour (total average 40kWh) is 5 years or 100,000 miles. So with a future prospect of no significant innovation in battery technology in the next five years and battery costs exceeding $10,000 per vehicle, it is high time for a redesign of the way our E-vehicles work.

1.3 THE IDEA:The concept is of a smart city with embedded magnetic resonant chargers in the road that charge the onboard receiver in vehicles with the required amount of power. Electric Cars are free to roam around the city without the need to worry about power.

1.4 IMPLEMENTATION:1. The coils are embedded in the road surface with control mechanisms to trigger the circuit when

a car passes so that there is efficient handing over of car from one coil to another and the coil remains dormant when not in use.

2. There is a receiver coil in the vehicles that converts the magnetic energy to electric and supplies to the motor in the vehicle to move. The power usage can be monitored onboard and billed per month for the usage of electricity.

3. Smart grids can be created using maps, chargers and central data control to provide automated driving experience to the customers, who can specify the start and end destination and the car

receives the grid data based on the embedded charger route, Gps (traffic), and map based data applications.

4. Vehicles can be provided at half of the cost of existing vehicles (since it only requires drive mechanism and DC motors and no batteries) with embedded resonant receivers inbuilt, existing petrol vehicles can continue plying on the new roads without any interference, with subsidies and reduced cost of operation the value seeking Indian population will turn over to the new solution In the long run.

5. Vehicles can be provided different speed/power capacities based on the amount of power drawn and the idle utilization of energy at traffic stops and other stop overs can be minimized many fold over the current electric solutions.

1.5 PROPOSED PROJECT LOCATION:With a push from the BJP led government to create a smart city starting with Varanasi there needs to be a planned reorganization of the way the roads are redesigned in Varanasi with the center of the city designed around the airport and railway station and test grids placed in major roads connecting both the centers.

1.6 FEASIBILITY OF THE PROJECTWith current sources of power running out and no battery based alternative in pipeline there needs to be a push for next generation transportation solutions for a long term vision, with Modi led governments push for infrastructure projects taking a step ahead road reconstruction will be done for most roads with 7300 crores of new roads budget allocation and 830 crores of road maintenance budget, the cost to implement this solution in hand with the government will be minimal and will yield exceptional results in the future and enhanced savings due to the huge offset of petroleum import that highlights India’s current budget deficit condition.

Traffic jams and road congestions also can be corrected as smart grids can predict the road traffic patterns and driver alerts can be generated to use alternative routes. Setup of central traffic monitoring headquarters can be done to identify accidents, traffic holdups etc. and rectify in real time. The efficiency and uses of this system hugely offset the initially costs exponentially.

1.7 COST PROJECTIONS (ESTIMATED):Total road length in Varanasi=1170 KM = 1170,000 meters

Taking 50% of the roads under cover initially=585 KM

Cost of construction per KM of road= 60 lacs per km

Total road reconstruction cost= 585* .6=351 crores

One coil per meter, weight of copper required =0.32 KG/KM

Cost of copper per KG= 431 Rs

Total copper required= 0.32* 430 =137.6 KG

Cost of copper = 59306 Rs

Cost of electronics and manpower (assumed) = Rs 10,000 per KM

Total cost per KM= 10000*585= 58,50,000 Rs

project cost= 58.5 lacs+59306+351 crores = 351.59 crores

Overhead at 10% => 351.59+35.15 crores

Final project cost =386.15 crores

1.8 PROPOSED ROADMAP

H2 2014 Alpha Testing and feasibility study on pivot roads along Varanasi

H2 2014 Parallel product concept testing for electronics & charging coils

2015 Building electronics and coils factory and product development, testing

H1 2016 Grid beta testing and consumer feedbackH2 2016 Deployment and transfer to NHDA

1.9 FUTURE ROADMAP AND SCALABILITYThe project can be done for other cities in a phased manner using the same factories and products, existing infrastructure can be leveraged for each new city and cost of scale realized for very large implementations by 2030.

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Go ahead and dream a connected tomorrow.