Celebrating the first year of the ICMM CharIN Mining Task Force

This stream has relied heavily on the work conducted by CharIn on the ISO 15118 protocol, which is recognised by the industry as the protocol we need to adopt.

However, work is needed to fully integrate the structure and underlining broadcasting conventions within the mining industry. As battery equipment within mining becomes more of a reality, we intend to establish a team in 2024 to conduct a full assessment and provide clear recommendations to the industry.

This body of work has delivered real clarity this year with the development of the ruggedised Megawatt charging system (MCS) plug from within the bounds of the MCS plug and the publishing of an industry white paper. We would like to acknowledge the vast amount of work done by the team and the excellent leadership of the groups chair Marc-Andre Beck and the amazing efforts of our former chair Robert Doel.

The XMCS plug working group led by Christian Ebert continues to take shape well with the key parameters now well aligned and work commencing on the physical architecture and shape of the plug about to commence.

The working group has been focusing on the technical and functional requirements for the interface where the power connector (e.g., pantograph, current-collector, or electrical pick-up) connects to the haul truck’s electrical system. We also would like to acknowledge the excellent work done by the working group led by Kwan Lee, with first version of the white paper having received all the necessary approvals for publication (early in 2024). The working group will resume meeting in early 2024, to commence work on a second version of the white paper.

Other outstanding work this year has been delivery of the interoperability message at the E-Mine conference in Tucson Arizona by BHP and Rio Tinto and the huge support received from the large cohort assembled at the conference. A small contingent from both the major haul truck OEM’s and several Mining Companies also attended the CharIn Testival in Cleveland, Ohio to physically see the progress and understand the challenges seen within the onhighway deployment of large electric vehicles and the implementation of the MCS plug within that environment.

As the mining community continues to mature in this space, we will look to elements four and five of the model in the new year at the Electric Mine Conference (Perth, May 2024).

... will seek to understand the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) and how we may adopt that within the mining community if appropriate for charging systems to be able to communicate with grid resources.

... will further investigate the applicability of the J1939 protocol and the relevant on highway Parameter Group Numbers (PGN’s) to determine their relevance to build out key information for dispatch systems widely used across mining.