CHARGING SOLUTIONS
Battery Electric Vehicles’ project that also involved A $ 10 million of funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency( ARENA), it builds on an existing 3 MW prototype that has now been commercialised to serve dozer and grader class vehicles and machinery.
Driving X-MCS development
While the CCS and MCS protocol are already being factored into these charging solutions, the sector is already thinking about ultrafast charge options to power the batteries of heavy haul trucks and other production equipment.
This was made clear late last year in a joint whitepaper from CharIN and ICMM on the static charging interface for X-MCS( eXtreme Megawatt Charging System).
X-MCS introduces a breakthrough approach, enabling ultra-fast charging – potentially fully charging large haul trucks in just three minutes, according to the whitepaper.
The whitepaper stated:“ Such rapid charging minimises downtime, enhances operational efficiency and makes large-scale electrification more feasible. X-MCS’ s high power capacity, achieved by increasing voltage to 3,000 volts DC, can deliver up to 12 MW or more – supporting not only mining vehicles but also other sectors like rail and marine, thereby fostering broader industry decarbonisation and sustainable growth.” The whitepaper establishes, CharIN and ICMM say, a technical foundation for X-MCS development, detailing hardware specifications, safety standards and communication protocols.
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The Fortescue Zero 6 MW Off-Road Charging System is able to charge 3 MWh batteries within 30 minutes, the company says
The system should be viewed holistically to ensure all the components operate together in an interoperable manner, according to the whitepaper. That is, from the mobile equipment battery via the power distribution unit( PDU) to the automatic coupling device( ACD) to the electric vehicle supply equipment( EVSE).
The main components of the X-MCS charging system include:
• Battery: Battery with liquid cooled thermal management system, battery management system and fuse-based DC protection;
• PDU: Power distribution unit( DC distribution in and out & protection);
• LCU: Liquid cooling unit to dissipate the heat generated during the X-MCS charging;
• ACD( lateral arm, pantograph or plug socket system); and
• EVSE: Electric vehicle supply equipment( EVSE) in DC current control( battery charger)
The battery must be able to handle high C-rates, as dictated by the battery chemistry, and a very high cycle life at frequent fast charging, according to the whitepaper. X-MCS must be capable of delivering the power as specified by this standard. Ideally, the system must also have a“ boost” mode to supply higher power with the duty cycle. It added:“ As batteries get larger in energy capacity, and as needs for faster charging increases, more power will be needed in the future. X-MCS must be of technology that allows for easy and safe scalability of power. Ideally, the X-MCS can also be deployed as two units in parallel to double the power.”
It will also need to be interoperable across vehicles, EVSEs and types of mines, plus be able to deal with:
• Electrical stresses such as ripple, over voltage and / or over current;
• Mechanical stresses such as vibration and continuous usage; and
• Thermal stresses due to high current or increased resistance of the connector.
Low downtime, low maintenance, long life, high mating cycles, despite continuous and heavy usage, are also all expected.
Safety must have the highest priority in the X-MCS standardisation and product design, according to the whitepaper. The following safety related hazards( predominantly electrical) must be addressed in developing a future standard for the X-MCS:
• Electric shock due to direct contact;
• Electric shock due to indirect contact;
• Touch potential and step potential under fault or machinery failure conditions;
• Discharge through stray shunt impedances or shunt impedances deliberately inserted into the circuit eg as filters;
• Arc-flash, including arc fault contained equipment and considerations for ensuring personnel are removed from any arc flash boundary;
• Over temperature; and
• Crushing and entanglement, with consideration for functional safety controls( eg moving parts hitting people).
At first instance, these hazards must be controlled through‘ hierarchy of control’. Where elimination and substitution cannot be achieved, then engineering controls should be employed.
The whitepaper concluded:“ An important component for moving into the direction of X-MCS is the battery on the truck. Further improvement on power and energy density of battery chemistry is needed to reduce the weight of the battery packs. The other aspect is the robustness of the battery chemistry to cope with charging cycles in the rough environment of a mine site.
“ This whitepaper has envisioned already some of the forward-looking requirements in anticipation of the future developments …[ It ] also encourages the readers to look across other sectors in industry and transportation to use components and methods for this new system. Battery trains and battery vessels are, for example, an area to check on developments and technologies to use and transfer.
“ Therefore, collaboration, co-creation and, later on, extensive tests in a proofof-concept phase are needed from all parties involved: [ the ] mining industry, truck OEMs and EVSE OEMs must drive this development together.”
International Mining | APRIL 2026