Komatsu and partners committed to pushing the automated MW charging envelope
Whether it was an in-depth discussion about DC arc flash considerations, a comparison of battery chemistry properties, or references to battery management systems, safety came up in countless talks and panels at The Electric Mine 2026, in Lisbon, Portugal.
This prevalence is understandable as the electrification community looks past the initial battery capacity/range concerns and surficial lab-based nail penetration test videos to thinking practically about applying this new breed of technology at operational mine sites.
The discussion extended throughout the exhibition hall too, with one of the more practical examples of safe ways to apply these electric technologies coming in a demonstration of an automated connection solution to support the automated charging of electric mining equipment.
This saw Andrew Elsen, Senior Product Manager of Charging for Komatsu, Claudio Castagnetti, Head of Sales E-Mobility at Stäubli Electrical Connectors AG, and Nic Beutler, Product Manager for ABB, showcase the capabilities of a new automated connection device, the QCC-5000X, to a crowd of eager delegates.
Shortly after the demonstration, a whitepaper titled, ‘Automated megawatt charging: Komatsu’s foundation for safe and scalable mining ultra-class electric fleets,’ landed in the IM inbox. This was swiftly followed by a Teams call with Elsen to reflect on this paper, as well as the broader themes from the Lisbon event.
Safety and standards
“You all know that electrification is not new, but what is changing is the scale, the power and the stored energy involved,” Emma Jones, Executive Advisor, Innovation & Transformation at GHD, said during the preamble to the ‘Collaboration opportunities – Battery-enabled mining vehicles’ safety’ panel she chaired at The Electric Mine 2026.
“Very large vehicles operating at multi-MW power levels with high-voltage DC systems and significant stored energy is what we’re talking about…[These vehicles] can remain hazardous even when the equipment is off, challenging long-held assumptions about isolation, de-energisation, maintenance and emergency responses.”
This set the tone for arguably the most engaging panel of the three-day event; one that examined the necessary PPE to deal with such vehicles (BHP’s Global Practice Lead for Fleet Decarbonisation, Iain Curran, referencing a perceived need for “bomb suits” ), accounting for the “unknown unknowns” in this high-voltage space and assessing what threshold is required for electric vehicle charging to be automated.
The concluding remarks around the battery-enabled vehicle safety discussion – which ended up homing in on DC arc flash hazards – focused on the need to ensure everyone went home at the end of a shift unharmed.
Elsen commented on such panel commentary: “Let’s consider taking that person who would charge such a vehicle out of that environment completely, right? We don’t need to do vehicle charging with people at those higher power levels; it creates too much of a risk.”
He added: “We have the technology now to make this automated, and that takes the individual out of that situation with the standardised designs we’re seeing.”
Removing a person from harm’s way through automating these MW-level charges benefits safety on site, but it also removes variability – whether that is how the operator connects and disconnects the system, or how long they take to conduct the process. The whitepaper Elsen authored stated: “In contrast, using automated systems to conduct charging operations provides an opportunity to mitigate these avoidable conditions.
“Additionally, when integrated with autonomous haul fleets, fleet management applications and integrated energy management systems, an opportunity emerges for a foundation for future interoperability via emerging standards for megawatt charging and automated connection devices.”
One such industry standard is SAE J3105, developed by SAE International, that defines performance, communication, control, mechanical and safety requirements for conductive automated connection devices so charging can occur without an operator leaving their seat and in a repeatable manner. This keeps an operator in a safe position to monitor the system and allows the opportunity for more powerful and efficient charging events.
From a Komatsu perspective, interoperability and standardisation are key, Elsen says, explaining that the Stäubli QCC-5000X that he, Castagnetti and Beutler presented in Lisbon embodies that.
“We’re going for this existing standard with the Stäubli connector pin, and we’re using existing communication standards for the charger interface drawn from the on-highway industry…
“Using those standards and pushing the envelope in terms of the power level will drive industry forward.”
Don’t break the autonomy push
Ultra-class haulage duty cycles are defined by tight queues for loading haul trucks, steep grade segments and continuous 24/7 operations.
“The source of energy for these battery-powered vehicles will shift from being produced onboard via internal combustion engines and fuel, to drawing the energy from the utility power grid,” Elsen wrote in the whitepaper. “To draw this energy effectively and efficiently for surface mining applications the charging interface and process must become as industrialised as the truck itself.”
Komatsu, representing the OEM, and electrical infrastructure suppliers, such as ABB, are already developing and demonstrating automated fast charge systems designed for harsh mine environments, with the eMine
Robot Automated Connection Device (ACD), an interoperable, fully automated, high-power charging solution for electric mining trucks. This solution has already been tested at the Aitik mine in northern Sweden, where the connection and disconnection process was evaluated. The next step will be testing the ACD integrated with the Stäubli QCC-5000X at Komatsu’s Arizona Proving Grounds (AZPG): a test facility that already has multi-megawatt charging infrastructure planned alongside an existing trolley assist track.
At The Electric Mine 2026, Beutler and Elsen’s colleague, Lucas van Latum, Product Director of Energy Transfer and Software Systems, also highlighted plans to build a 1.9 km side rail system at AZPG.
All this work reflects the sector’s recognition that charging must be engineered as a “production system”, according to Elsen, who noted two trends that make automation essential rather than optional: power escalation and operational autonomy.
In the former category, transitioning from hundreds of kWs toward multi-MW charging drives performance targets to extremely high currents/voltages for heavy duty off-highway applications, pushing new requirements and solutions in thermal management, connector design and handling and safety and standards.
When it comes to operational autonomy, mines are moving toward increasingly automated and autonomous operations – Komatsu just celebrated a new milestone of commissioning its 1,000th autonomous ultra-class haul truck equipped with the company’s FrontRunner Autonomous Haulage System. Charging of battery-electric haul trucks and other equipment and vehicles must not remain a manual “last step” that breaks such autonomy, according to Elsen.
He added: “The value drivers in charger automation are higher availability, reducing charger connecting times, consistency in charging sessions and minimising haul truck downtime…Finally reduced infrastructure may be realised by leveraging additional automation tools with charging, such as energy management and fleet management systems.”
Even though the number of MW charges on battery-electric haul trucks to have taken place remains low – reflecting the lack of commercial BEVs in the ultra-class truck segment – this type of talk is not theoretical, according to Elsen.
In the whitepaper conclusion, he said: “The industry direction toward MCS and established work on conductive automated connection devices (SAE J3105) underscore that automation is not speculative; it is the enabling layer required for large scale BEV haulage.
“Komatsu is actively leading this transition. Through targeted investments in electrification, automation and energy management, and through a dedicated centre of excellence focused on decarbonisation, the company is developing the systems and infrastructure required to make ultra-class battery-electric fleets viable at scale.”
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