How many chargers will the USA Northeast’s electric trucks need? National Grid aims to find out.

The U.S. Department of Energy is funding the” Northeast Freight Corridors Charging Plan,” which will also work with RMI, the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management, Clean Communities of Central New York, and DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. In the end, National Grid will produce 20-year demand forecasts for more than 100 prospective charging sites in the region as a result of its two years of research into the Northeast’s energy trucking charging needs.

In order to model charging requirements north of National Grid’s study area, the national nonprofit CALSTART, which is receiving DOE support, will also work in tandem with regional Grid. A total of 3,700 miles of highways and freight corridors will be examined in the two studies.

According to National Grid,” when combined, this broader analysis will span 15 states, supporting more than 300 million tons of freight moving through ports on the East Coast each year, as well as several of the largest cities in the U.S.”

According to Bart Franey, vice president of clean energy development at National Grid in New York,” Reading our grid infrastructure for electric trucks will require careful planning and close collaboration across state lines.”

The study by National Grid will concentrate on highways with large trucking traffic and business hubs like ports. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the states of New England will all have model sites.

According to Franey,” This roadmap will guide efforts by states, utilities, communities, and industry leaders to build a frictionless truck charging network throughout the region.”

The project will expand on National Grid’s” Electric Highways Study,” which was released in 2022 and found that by 2045, a huge highway fast-charging site might have power needs comparable to those of southwestern towns.

According to David Sandbank, vice president of distributed energy resources at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority,” this study will help deepen our understanding of electrification needs and help New Jersey State and the region carefully put more choice and heavy-duty energy trucks on the road.”