On March 28, the Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Electronics (EEA) of Tsinghua University, together with CRRC Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Research Institute Co., Ltd., Sany Heavy Truck and relevant units, released the “Sky Travel” electrified highway transport system in Zhuzhou City, Hu’nan Province.

The “Sky Travel” electrified highway transport system is realized by setting up a pantograph on the highway to supply power to heavy trucks, green and clean electric energy can be directly used to drive freight vehicles without increasing the weight cost due to the use of a lot of batteries, and this is a new mode of transport suitable for large-volume lines. The team of Associate Professor Zheng Zedong and Professor Li Yongdong from EEA started this research and development in 2018, and completed the design and demonstration of the overall system scheme, and developed the key technologies such as medium-voltage DC traction network power supply, dual-source pantograph current receiving, vehicle-mounted high-frequency isolated DC/DC conversion, vehicle electrical system and multi-source coordination with industrial enterprises.

At the press conference, Professor Kang Chongqing, Dean of EEA, delivered a speech on behalf of the EEA, and Associate Professor Zheng Zedong made a technical report on behalf of the research team. Wang Jun, Vice President of CRRC, Wang Wei’an, Executive Deputy Mayor of Zhuzhou City, Li Donglin, Chairman of CRRC Zhuzhou Research Institute, Zhu Hong, President of Sany Heavy Truck Research Institute, Wang Litian, Chief Scientist of China Railway No. 6 Survey and Design Institute, and governmental officers from Ordos, Yibin, Hami and the Highway Institute of the Ministry of Communications attended the conference and delivered speeches respectively. The project team demonstrated on-site operation of the traction power supply system and heavy-duty trucks.

The “Sky Travel” electrified highway transport system jointly released by EEA, CRRC Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Research Institute, Sany Heavy Truck, and China Railway Electrification Engineering Research Institute is an important milestone in the research of this technology, symbolizing that the technology has entered the stage of mature application. In the future, local governments, equipment manufacturing companies and transport companies will jointly promote the implementation of demonstration projects.