Economic impacts of the catenary electric road system implementation in Flanders

Catenary electric road system (ERS) is a technology that enables powering pantograph-equipped road freight vehicles with electricity from overhead catenary while in motorway traffic to provide energy for propulsion and charging the vehicle batteries. Once leaving the catenary road, the energy stored in the battery or another energy source, e.g. hybrid diesel, natural gas or hydrogen, is used for propulsion.

In this research we model the deployment of such catenary network on the Flemish road network in Belgium to identify three points. First, what are the economic impacts of the catenary electric road system implementation in Flanders for the road haulage industry, their clients and wider society under different technology adoption scenarios. Second, what is the most optimal way of building such a catenary network. And last, what are the synergies that would come from implementation of this technology in the neighboring countries and how to benefit from those.

In this research we find that catenary ERS has the potential to be developed into an economically sustainable and relatively cheap way of decarbonizing road freight transport. It offers considerable economic incentives for all the involved stakeholders and is beneficial to the society as a whole.