Comment by Beth Warnock, Senior Power Systems Engineer, at Energy Systems Catapult.

Travelling across the UK to deliver goods, Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) form part of a critical national distribution and logistics network. In 2021, according to Department for Transport’s (DfT) transport and environment statistics, HGVs emitted 21MtCO₂e which will require a national plan to support decarbonisation whilst ensuring the continued commercial viability of the sector. Due to the distances travelled, a national network of charging facilities will be needed. Distribution network planning needs a national strategy to ensure the charging facilities required are delivered consistently at pace and scale to meet increased demand for electric HGV (eHGV) charging.

The eFREIGHT 2030 project, funded through the DfT’s £200 million Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure demonstrator (ZEHID) fund, is aiming to trial around 100 electric HGVs and rollout supporting charging facilities across the UK. The project brings together stakeholders from across the sector including eHGV Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), fleet operators, fleet software providers and charging infrastructure providers and operators.

Our role in the consortium is to bring a whole systems perspective to the trial and expand the project’s research beyond eHGVs themselves. We need to understand how decarbonising road freight and deploying eHGV charging facilities at scale will impact the current and future energy system and what can be done to support and accelerate the transition.

Getting connected

Connection of charging infrastructure to the electricity distribution network across the UK is required for the trial. The chargers required for eHGVs are much larger than those required for the smaller electric vehicles (EV) we now see on our roads.

The chargers being installed in people’s homes are usually a maximum of 7kW and the eHGV chargers being trialled by eFREIGHT 2030 could be up to 1000kW which means they need a bigger connection to the distribution network. This is likely to pose a significant challenge in the areas where eHGV charging infrastructure will be needed, especially where capacity is already constrained or where connections to the network do not exist.

The challenge

Aligning the delivery and rollout of the charging network will not be easy. The time to get a new demand connection varies across the country. Some areas have no or very little network constraints. In these areas charging facility connections will be much faster compared to other parts of the country which are heavily constrained and in need of significant network reinforcements. This could potentially add years of delay to a eHGV charging network rollout. In these constrained areas a conversation with the Distribution Network Operator (DNO) will be required as a solution may be available. The difficulty with this approach is that for every charging facility a conversation with the DNO will need to happen. For the scale of charging facilities required in the future this approach will be unsustainable.

Charging facilities for eHGVs will need to be deployed across the whole country to enable charging in depots and on the road. If charging facilities are being delayed in some areas this could have a knock-on effect on the national network, and ultimately the viability of electrification as a transition option for the sector. If vehicles are not able to charge in certain areas of operation, the trial (and the subsequent uptake of eHGVs beyond the trial), will be impacted as operators will not be able to replace some existing HGV routes with eHGVs.

Demand connection challenges are going to become worse as more parts of society and industry look to decarbonise and electrify. If the hoped-for decarbonisation of road freight is to be achieved, and more eHGVs are deployed across the UK fleet, the infrastructure to support charging will need to be there as well. As demand grows the connection challenges will pose greater and greater risks to the ambition of the transition.

The network opportunity

Network planning is done at a regional level by the DNO. New Regional Energy Strategic Plans (RESPs) will be delivered using a ‘hub and spoke’ model comprising a ‘central hub’ and ‘regional spokes’. The DNO investment plan will need to align to the RESP.

There is the opportunity to develop a national charging infrastructure plan for eHGVs within the ‘central hub’ and apply it to the ‘regional spokes’. This could support the prioritisation of eHGV charging facilities and ensure the charging network is delivered at the same time across the UK.

If this approach isn’t taken there is a risk that slow development in some parts of the country could have a negative impact on the national electrification and decarbonisation of the HGV fleet.