Stagecoach is the largest bus and coach operator in the UK and runs a fleet of 8,050 vehicles, serving 2 million passengers daily. The company has made significant strides in reducing its carbon emissions and has committed to achieving a zero-emission bus fleet by 2035.  

Stagecoach has made a pledge to make its entire bus fleet emission-free by 2035. As part of the project, it is electrifying its Romford depot and needed a partner to install and provide ongoing operations and maintenance (O&M) services for its EV charging infrastructure. EO was appointed to the project in June 2023 and finished the installation in May 2024. The project scope included: 

• Unique and innovative depot design due to limited space. 

• Infrastructure installation.  

• Energy management due to limited power requirements in the day including load management, EO Hub.  

• Fleet Charging Management System, EO Cloud.  

• Ongoing Operations & Maintenance (O&M) offline and on-site support 24/7/365.  

Innovative Depot Design: Faced with limited space, EO designed an innovative and unique depot layout, installing chargers on walls and ceilings and incorporating 9 ceiling-mounted cable reels. This smart design ensured the depot maintained its full operational space without any loss. The hardware installed included:  

• 3x Kempower 600kW power cabinets 

• 20x Kempower charge boxes (9 ceiling mounted and 11 wall mounted) 

• 2x Kempower dual satellites 

• 2x Kempower stand-alone 150kW dual chargers 

• 2x Kempower portable chargers 40kW 

• 9x Stemmann cable reels 

Fleet Management: EO’s fleet management system, EO Cloud has been installed providing Stagecoach with a real-time view and management of its Romford depot bus fleet. EO cloud enables vehicle scheduling, insights and reporting on live and past charge session and provides automatic fault detection. This provides Stagecoach with the control and charge assurance it requires to run its busy bus service.  

Energy Management: Stagecoach’s Romford depot has limited power capacity in the day so EO’s energy management solution, EO Hub was implemented. EO Hub will support timed connections, optimising available power and load balancing to ensure power capacity is not exceeded. EO Hub will not only provide operational efficiencies, but it will also provide economic benefits as the Romford depot can now utilise off-peak charge rates. 

Charge Assurance: With around 100 buses operating daily from this London depot it was vital to have a partner who could provide charge assurance and 24/7/365 support. The combination of EO Cloud, EO Hub and EO’s O&M service will provide both offsite and onsite support, ensuring the uptime of Stagecoach’s Romford depot.

• Consultation and design of the new depot utilising ceiling and wall space for charging infrastructure.  

• Full project management of the infrastructure installation using EO engineers and site managers.  

• Deployment of EO’s software service EO Cloud.  

• Installation of EO’s Energy Management solution and connection to EO Cloud.  

• Stakeholder management via an EO Key Account Manager to ensure satisfactory project delivery. 

Due to the innovative design of the charging infrastructure, EO reinforced the depot’s roof to support ceiling-mounted walls and cable reels, allowing for a high-performance charging solution within the limited space available. This tailored approach has provided Stagecoach Romford with a streamlined and space-efficient depot layout that maximises charging capacity without compromising operational flow. 

Carrying out installation while maintaining uninterrupted bus operations required meticulous co-ordination and collaboration with the Romford depot management team. EO’s project manager worked closely with Stagecoach Romford, establishing consistent communication channels and fostering a strong partnership to ensure smooth progress. This teamwork allowed the installation to proceed with minimal disruption, ultimately delivering a state-of-the-art charging infrastructure that meets the depot’s operational demands effectively. 

 
Mark Wallis – Stagecoach London Engineering Director  

“The work which has been carried out at Romford has allowed the garage to cater for the influx of electric vehicles in the coming year. 

The project went smoothly without any hitches so it has been a big success for us, and more importantly the local community who will now be benefiting from cleaner, environmentally friendly modern buses.  

In the coming months we will be working with EO on the next phase of the electrification of the garage which will be to install more chargers for another one of our routes which will be going electric.  

We’re also looking forward to working with them on further projects across more of our sites in the not-too-distant future."