Techno-economic analysis and design of the charging infrastructure for Electric Heavy Vehicles in Oskarshamn

Abstract: Within the most pollutants industries, the energy sector is the most significant contributor to climate change, representing two-thirds of the total Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. One of the main responsible for these emissions is transportation, which accounts for 26% of the world’s energy consumption, with crude oil-derived products providing more than 90% of this energy. In Europe, the transport sector is the only sector that has experienced an upward trend of GHG emissions between 1990 and 2017, opposite to all others, such as agriculture, residential, or industry. To cut these growing GHG emissions, transport electrification has been presented as a potential and promising solution for decarbonization thanks to the no tail-pipe emissions and the possibility of using renewable energy to power them. One particularly interesting segment of the transport sector is Heavy Duty Trucks (HDTs) used for freight transport. HDTs are the backbone of the Swedish economy and competitiveness since they represent 45% of its total goods transportation. However, the Swedish transmission grid needs to evolve parallelly to cope with the increase in electricity demand and withstand the Charging Infrastructure (CI) necessary for the electrification of HDTs. Oskarshamn is a Swedish municipality that presents a high potential for electrification of its HDTs, which are currently operated with diesel. Therefore, the objective of this Master Thesis is to study the implementation of Electric Heavy Vehicles (EHVs) CI in Oskarshamn by collaborating with local interested stakeholders. The study is conducted through an analysis of the current status of EHV technologies, as well as CI possibilities, which, together with the information provided by truck operators from Oskarshamn, allows to perform a techno-economic assessment of the solution and analyze the business model of its operation. A virtual model is created with Python to simulate the actual operating conditions, which uses all the information gathered and optimizes the CI design while fulfilling all its transport requirements. Additionally, the study seeks to identify potential areas for shared ownership of the CI to increase the project's feasibility. This project’s findings demonstrate that electrification of freight transportation brings financial and sustainable benefits for truck operators while presenting a diverse range of options to meet their specific transportation requirements. Furthermore, by effectively negotiating ownership terms and electricity tariffs for CI, there is potential to further enhance business profitability.