Do you ever wonder how you can scale battery powered ground power units to a larger fleet?
One of the questions we often hear is how we imagine scaling the 7400 eGPU technology to larger fleets and busier airports. Luckily, we have just the answer!
The only real restriction on scalability for battery GSE is the airport power infrastructure and the availability of charging points. Unfortunately, a lot of airports today are challenged on both these parameters. Even though everyone gains from improvements at airport gates, many gate equipment upgrades require power infrastructure changes that are too costly to justify. This means delayed progress at the gate and missed opportunities. That’s where EcoGate comes into play.
A system of efficiency
Moving beyond individual units, EcoGate integrates GSE equipment into a system – an ecosystem, where new efficiencies emerge as units work together intelligently to share power and work smarter. For airlines and airports, this means greater profitability.
With EcoGate enabled ITW GSE products, you can utilize any surplus power at the airport gates, that could be for additional fixed equipment installations or in this case for charging points.
Adding charging points using EcoGate allows you to reroute surplus power to charging eGSE both during and between turnarounds. By monitoring the current in real time, EcoGate ensures that the total available power is never exceeded, maximizing the use of the available infrastructure without any costly upgrades into substations and cabling.
Exploit your excess power with ITW GSE Power Share
The ITW GSE Power Share is one of the newest additions of EcoGate enabled products. Since most gates are designed to generate more power than what is required to meet the aircraft’s power needs, the Power Share technology ensures that the excess power from the grid can be used for other applications and be distributed efficiently to AC-powered equipment, DC chargers or eGPU.
Typically, a GPU is designed to deliver more power than required to meet an aircraft’s power needs. And often PCAs deliver excess capacity for about 80% of the time, wasting lots of expensive energy and creating undesirable emissions.
The ITW GSE Power Share lets you allocate excess power to eGPUs and other AC units without having to upgrade the existing infrastructure.
The Power Share is a smart outlet box that can be integrated in a fixed GPU or remotely installed for a Power Coil or PCA. The Power Share will always prioritize supplying the available power to the GPU/PCA over other connected equipment which is simply disconnected. The disconnected equipment will automatically be reconnected when power becomes available.
The future of EcoGate
For now, the technologies behind EcoGate include Intelligent Power Management, Stepless Regulation via VFD technologies, and Automated Aircraft Type Detection using VDGS or BMS solutions. Working together, these technologies transform existing airport gates into modern systems while future-proofing new facilities right from the beginning.
Looking ahead, we plan to expand the offering of EcoGate enabled technologies and units to help airports control power infrastructure costs, improve efficiency, accelerate turnarounds, and reduce complexity for GSE operators.
Follow us on LinkedIn for all the latest news.
