Assessment, design and operation of battery-supported electric mining vehicles and machinery (FBI CRC No. 028)

Project completed by Future Battery Industries CRC which receives allocation of MRIWA funds.

The Challenge

Mining is Australia’s second-largest carbon emitter, with the fastest emissions growth of any sector. Decarbonising means electrifying mobile fleets — but no off-the-shelf software exists to help miners size batteries, design charging infrastructure, and plan power systems together. Decisions are being made in the dark. 

Key Findings 

Electrifying mining vehicles can cut operating costs by 7–15%, slash energy costs by 30–50%, drop ventilation costs by 40%, and wipe out Scope 1 and 2 emissions while making mines safer. The catch: each site needs a tailored design. Battery size, charging infrastructure, and the underlying power system have to be co-optimised against haul profiles, productivity targets, and expansion plans. Workforce upskilling is just as critical as the kit.  

Benefit to WA

WA underpins Australia’s mining export economy and supplies the critical minerals — iron ore, lithium, nickel — that the world depends on. MOVE puts WA operators in the driver’s seat on electrification, with a publicly available minimal viable product software launching in 2026 to help size fleets, charging, and energy infrastructure cost-effectively. 

DOI

State of Play Report: An overview of Australia’s mining vehicle and mining equipment electrification, August 2023 https://www.mriwa.wa.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/2012-M0533-PUBLIC-StateofPlay_Report_Electricity_Web_v2.pdf 

Assimi, Hirad, et al. “Toward Underground Mobile Fleet Electrification: Three essential steps to make a real change.” IEEE Electrification Magazine 12.1 (2024): 16-26. https://doi.org/10.1109/MELE.2023.3348255  

Maadani, Mohsen, Hossein Ranjbar, and S. Ali Pourmousavi. “Industrial Internet of Things in Mine Electrification: Necessity or luxury?.” IEEE Electrification Magazine 12.1 (2024): 45-55. https://doi.org/10.1109/MELE.2023.3348350  

Islam, Shah Mohammad Mominul, et al. “Sustainable and cost-effective microgrid sizing methodology for mining operations considering reliability and energy not-served.” 2024 IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Europe (ISGT EUROPE). IEEE, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1109/ISGTEUROPE62998.2024.10863189  

Ranjbar, Hossein, et al. “Frequency-constrained autonomous microgrid planning for mining industry applications.” Applied Energy 396 (2025): 126201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.126201  

Ranjbar, Hossein, et al. “Optimal planning of renewable-based mining microgrids: a comparative study of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms: H. Ranjbar et al.” Optimization Letters (2025): 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11590-025-02214-4  

Islam, Shah Mohammad Mominul, et al. “An accurate and computationally efficient lithium-ion battery operation and degradation framework for planning and sizing studies in renewable energy systems.” Journal of Energy Storage 150 (2026): 120575. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2026.120575  

Ranjbar, Hossein and Pourmousavi Kani, Seyyed Ali and Soong, Wen Liang, Battery Degradation and Frequency Stability Considerations in the Design of Off-Grid Mining Microgrids. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6882926 

Tamsa, A. Garg, W. L. Soong and S. A. Pourmousavi, “Design and Simulation of a Battery Electric Vehicle Model for Underground Mining Applications with Synthetic Data Generation for Machine Learning Model,” in 2026 IEEE Conference on Artificial Intelligence (CAI), Granada, Spain, 2026, pp. 438-443, https://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/CAI68641.2026.11536244  

Seyed Nasrollah Hashemian, Hirad Assimi, Hossein Ranjbar, S. Ali Pourmousavi, Wen L. Soong, Coordinated sizing of battery and charging systems for underground mining electric trucks, International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, Volume 175, 2026, 111652, ISSN 0142-0615, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijepes.2026.111652