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When the green work advances to the airport, we are pleasantly surprised to see the results that are constantly produced in the process of change.
Taking the bridge power supply at Chengdu Shuangliu Airport China as an example, the annual bridge power supply guarantee totaled 7,566,300 minutes, or 126,105 hours, an average of 10,508 hours per month; the bridge air-conditioning guarantee was 1,832,220 minutes, or 30,537 hours, an average of 2,544 hours per month. 27 airlines provided the service, which could save 47% of the airlines’ fuel cost in the transit period, and reduce carbon emissions by 81%, while the equipment also delivered revenue performance of up to 57%.
Although the construction of green airports also involves many other aspects, such as the use of new energy vehicles, new energy special vehicles, etc., the reduction of carbon emissions and energy from ground power is the largest.
Therefore, how to promote the use of bridge-carrying equipment in airports and increase the utilization rate while ensuring safety, as well as how to operate a number of bridge-carrying equipment, what corresponding management systems need to be set up, and what support is needed are all key tasks related to the construction of green airports.
In 2002, Chengdu Airport became the first airport in China to install aircraft ground power equipment, which was the earliest incarnation of Chengdu Airport’s efforts to create a green airport.
Ten years later, in 2012, Chengdu Airport’s bridge-carrying business developed, and the prototype of a green airport took shape after ten years of development.
In June 2012, Chengdu Airport’s T2 terminal was put into use, and along with the new terminal were 46 boarding bridges hooked up to ground power. Over a six-year period, the utilization rate of bridge-mounted power supply at Chengdu Airport was able to reach a maximum of more than 90%, but it has now dropped to around 80%.
This situation is the result of a change in the bridge operation process in 2017. Once the operation process of connecting the power first and then leaning against the bridge was used, where pilots could connect the power without shutting down the engine, and then make the switch before shutting down the engine.
Now, it has been changed to connect the power after the bridge, and the pilot must turn on the APU and shut down the engine after the airplane enters the aircraft position, and then connect the power to convert after the bridge has been connected to the bridge.
People who have been engaged in aircraft maintenance work know that the number of times the APU is turned on and off is limited, more than a certain number of times must be overhauled, which undoubtedly increases the cost of the bridge power users in disguise, and is not conducive to improving the utilization rate of the bridge equipment.
On the other hand, because there is no requirement that the equipment must be used, from the perspective of the flight attendants or flight crews, “more is better than less,” and the users sometimes refuse to use the equipment. Nationwide, no airport has yet to require the use of ground power as soon as an airplane lands, and this issue is one of the current dilemmas.
Two of the problems mentioned above are the lack of uniformity in the use of standards and the lack of mandatory use of ground power equipment. If these two problems are solved in the next one or two years, it will bring about a third problem: can individual airports keep up with the quality control of safety services?
Chengdu Airport’s ground power supply equipment put into use for six years, in the scale of the country’s upstream level, but also figured out a set of more perfect management mode, but still not be able to do 100%, so the problem of the last back to the quality management.
For the training and assessment of operating personnel, for the maintenance and repair of hardware and equipment, are the focus of the whole link, only to solve all these problems, can we say that we have taken a solid step forward in the creation of green airports.
Since 2016, Chengdu Airport joint ground power manufacturers to actively promote the development of new energy, new technologies, new equipment, currently put into use green micro-storage aircraft ground power is the crystallization of its achievements.
By using solar power to generate electricity stored in batteries, and then provided to the aircraft to use, greatly saving energy.
Chengdu Tianfu International Airport is about to be completed, a variety of new technologies, new standards will be applied to the construction of the new airport, I believe that the ground power supply equipment will also shine in the Tianfu International Airport green airport construction.
