TransportPLAN is a very detailed national transport scenario modelling tool that consists of MS Excel Spreadsheet that enables users to created numerous transport scenarios related to passenger and freight activities relatively quickly and easy.
An important functionality of the TransportPLAN tool is that the output can serve as an input for EnergyPLAN where further integrated energy system modelling can be conducted. This allows for analyses of how the transport energy sector interacts with the surrounding energy system.
The TransportPLAN tool started development in 2010 and continued development in the sEEnergies project completed in 2022. A detailed report describes the tool design and scenario results from the sEEnergies project. Download the report here.
TransportPLAN scenario results from the sEEnergies project can be download for each country here.
A basic description of the tool is presented below.
Using the tool
The first inputs required for TransportPLAN are the transport demands for different modes. Many modes of transport can be considered, and the main division is on passenger, freight and other transport such as military transport.
For projecting the future transport demands it is necessarily to define the annual growth rate for each mode of transport for periods of growth that the data is available in the transport demand growth module (TDGM). The results are displayed for each period separately until 2050. In this way the user can model improvements in the vehicle utilisation and modal shift consequences.
TransportPLAN has an integrated modal shift module that allows the user to shift transport demand from one mode of transport to another. The starting point is 0% for a reference model and the modal shifts are introduced for each period.
TransportPLAN includes a variety of different transport modes, therefore vehicle costs are important to consider. Due to the lack of data availability for different vehicles, only road vehicles are accounted in the model and the associated costs. To calculate total investment costs for road vehicles the following data for defined: number of vehicles, investment costs, O&M costs, lifetime and charging stations required.
The vehicle count is based on the reference year and connected to growth over the years.
As an output, the tool provides the future projections of the transport fuel demands.