Grid connection of a future electric road

The transport sector accounts for a third of Sweden’s total greenhouse gas emissions where cars and heavy trucks dominate the use of fossil fuels. The Swedish government is now intensifying the work for an electrified transport sector where electric roads could be an important part. Electric roads enable heavy vehicles to charge their batteries while driving, which is expected to contribute to environmentally friendly and time-efficient freight transports. To implement electric roads, availability of electric power along the electric roads will be required. This study presents a plan for connecting an electric road to the electricity grid in the electricity network area of Vattenfall Eldistribution. From the results, the idea was to present general conclusions from the experiences of the study, that could contribute in further implementation of electric roads. The road that has been selected for the study was the E4 between Gävle and Stockholm. A model for calculating the power demand along the electric road has been modeled and connection possibilities to transformer stations has been investigated. The analysis was based on three scenarios where different degrees of strengthening of the existing electricity network were assumed. In addition, a forecast for 2030 and a cost estimation for each scenario has been carried out. The result of the study indicates that for road sections close to larger cities, there are a larger number of connection options in comparison to rural areas. Furthermore, the designed solution in the study required strengthening of the electricity grid and the investment cost was 362 million Swedish crowns.