One year of IMPROCHARES: building the foundations for grid-smart heavy-duty charging
The electrification of heavy transport is no longer a question of if, but of how quickly—and whether the electricity grid can keep pace. This challenge is at the heart of IMPROCHARES, a joint research project between Bnewable, UCLouvain and UGent.
At its core, IMPROCHARES is about one thing: enabling commercial-scale smart truck charging and flexibility solutions that make better use of existing grid capacity and unlock new value across the logistics and energy ecosystem.
We’re focused on real-world usability, with our academic partners applying their models—and we’ll dive into the advancements of the past year here.
Year 1 in context (October 2024 – October 2025)
During its first year, IMPROCHARES focused on building the technical and analytical foundations needed to support real-world deployment. Rather than moving directly to pilots, the emphasis was on understanding grid constraints, charging behavior, storage options and market integration in a structured, data-driven way.
With these fundamentals in place, Years 2 and 3 (October 2025 – October 2027) will focus on deeper data integration, validation of hybrid storage configurations and pilot implementations.
Key achievements in Year 1
Grid and hosting capacity modelling
Detailed static and dynamic digital models of a representative Belgian medium-voltage grid were developed using Fluvius data. These models enable robust assessments of how congestion, voltage limits and charger topology constrain heavy-duty truck charging, and provide a realistic baseline for evaluating smart charging strategies.
Charging behaviour and forecasting
Insights were collected from logistics operators and charge point operators through VIL and bilateral exchanges. Based on this input, synthetic datasets and a modular forecasting framework were developed to simulate charging demand, on-site generation and flexibility availability, without impacting live operations.
Hybrid storage and flexibility analysis
The project initiated the analysis of hybrid energy storage systems combining batteries with fast-responding technologies such as supercapacitors and flywheels. In parallel, a methodology was established to quantify flexibility under realistic grid constraints.
Market integration and business models
Optimization and trading algorithms were designed to integrate behind-the-meter flexibility into Belgian energy and flexibility markets. The project also actively engaged with DSOs, Elia, regulators and energy suppliers on topics including non-firm capacity, transfer of energy and sub-metering concepts.
Outlook for Years 2 and 3
The next phases of IMPROCHARES will focus on improving and extending the current models, integrating real operational data, validating hybrid storage configurations through simulations and pilots, and applying market and contractual frameworks in concrete use cases.
The overarching objective remains unchanged: to enable commercial-scale smart truck charging and flexibility solutions that make more efficient use of grid capacity and unlock value for logistics and energy stakeholders.
Get involved
If you are interested in exploring how IMPROCHARES can contribute to your practical use case through applied research, data-driven analysis or pilot collaboration, we invite you to reach out to the project partners.