Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is preparing its apron for a more electric future, and today at the PTE World Conference, speakers involved in the project outlined the practical challenges of bringing charging infrastructure into a busy airside environment.
In the session, ‘Electrifying airside at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport,’ Ivar Bal, a special airport systems engineer at Deerns, and Dennis de Cock, an electrification expert at Schiphol, explained how the airport is approaching the transition to electric ground support equipment (GSE) – in response to growing environmental concerns and regulatory demands – while maintaining operations.
Bal focused first on the operational challenge of where to put vehicles and chargers on an already constrained apron. Using one stand area as an example, he explained that once taxiways, buildings, roads and aircraft clearance zones are taken into account, very little space remains for parking and charging equipment. Thus, he said, Schiphol identified small pockets of usable space rather than trying to force an ideal layout into an operationally sensitive area.
In one example, Schiphol chose to place charging equipment on an already elevated area near the stand. Although this might initially have appeared to take up valuable handling space, Bal said the location made sense operationally because the area is only needed at certain moments during turnaround. “We protected it already, and we don’t take any more space than necessary,” he noted.
He added that finding space is only the first step: “It goes much further than that.” Once locations are identified, airports must still consider grid connections, panels, cabling and controls.
De Cock then turned to the electrical engineering side, outlining how Schiphol is redesigning existing GSE areas to support electric vehicles and new charging infrastructure. He said the airport is moving away from diesel equipment in several areas and planning for charging demand accordingly.
One key issue highlighted is that multiple vehicles often return for charging at the same time, creating peaks in energy demand. Because grid capacity is limited, Schiphol is developing charging strategies to manage this more efficiently, prioritizing some vehicles and shifting capacity as others leave for operation. The airport is also using distributed charging systems that can allocate power across multiple vehicles instead of relying on fixed-output chargers.
The speakers said the work has underlined the importance of standardization. Bal noted that chargers can easily end up being installed in the wrong place if layouts are designed without a clear understanding of how handlers actually park equipment. “One lesson out of this is to see if you can standardize the location,” he said.
Both speakers stressed that airports should design beyond today’s fleet and think ahead to future equipment types and operational changes. Schiphol is also working with handlers, manufacturers and leasing companies to better align future GSE design with airport infrastructure needs.
Save the dates! PTE World 2027 will be held at RAI Amsterdam, April 6-8, 2027.
