Intro
In August 2025, Unitial collaborated with Strukton Rail on one of the most ambitious emission-free railway construction projects in the Netherlands. During a 15-day possession between Maarn and Veenendaal-De Klomp, the track, sleepers, and ballast were renewed entirely with zero-emission equipment. Unitial supplied the energy management dashboard that gave Strukton real-time control over all batteries and machines on the construction site.
The challenge
Emission-free work with heavy rail equipment at scale. That was the ambition of Strukton Rail and client ProRail. Seven electric railroad excavators, two electric trucks, and emission-free small mechanical tools were deployed simultaneously, powered by three hydrogen generators. The logistical and energy complexity was enormous: when do you charge which machine? How do you prevent equipment from grinding to a halt due to a flat battery? Without insight, there is no control.
The solution
Unitial used the Energy Dashboard that brought all emission-free machines on the project site together in a single overview. Project managers could see at a glance:
- What each vehicle was doing at that moment
- Where it was located on the site
- What the battery state of charge was
Based on that data, Strukton could proactively steer: swapping batteries in time, aligning charging moments with the work rhythm, and preventing machines from unexpectedly failing. After completion, Unitial analysed the full dataset of the project. This gave Strukton concrete insights for future projects, enabling better estimation of the required energy consumption.
Result
The project was successfully delivered: on time, within the possession window, and with maximum deployment of zero-emission equipment. It was the first project in the Netherlands at this scale in which emission-free rail equipment was combined with a fully emission-free energy supply and a digital energy management platform.
For Strukton Rail, proof that large-scale emission-free work in railway construction is possible. For Unitial, confirmation that real-time insight is the key to reliable, emission-free construction sites.
Quote Strukton Rail
“Unitial had developed a dashboard for us in which all emission-free machines were displayed in real time. At a glance we could see what a machine was doing, how full the battery still was, and where it was located. This gave us a valuable tool for steering. As a result, we could prevent ending up with flat batteries and could efficiently swap and charge batteries. The machines generated a lot of data during the project, and this was analysed for us.”