Jenni Rekola, Sandvik: Smart mining grids + Q&A

Bio: Jenni Rekola is Principal Applied Research Engineer at Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions. She is working in the "Electrification Technologies and Machinery Systems" research team developing electrified mining vehicles. Her main responsibility is to analyze the effect of electric vehicles on the mine electric grid design and on the productivity of the mine. She is an electrical engineer with 10 years of experience on R&D and teaching of power electronics and power systems. She received her PhD from Tampere University of Technology 2015.

Summary of the talk: The world’s first underground fully electric drill was launched in 2016. Currently, the first fully electric drills, loaders, dump trucks, concrete sprayers and utility vehicles are available both to underground and surface mines. The sustainability goals of large mining companies are strict. E.g. Codelco, the largest copper producer in the world, has set the target to have a 100% electric underground mining vehicle fleet by 2030. Sandvik is doing close cooperation with universities, research centers and other companies related to the electrification, automation and digitalization. Sandvik is always open to interesting domestic and European partners for cooperation in R&D work. In particular, the following research problems are discussed:

• What is the best method for charging the batteries: fast charging, battery swapping, trolley or something else?

• How to design the power grid and ventilation for underground mines?

• How to optimize the operating schedule of the full electric fleet?