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While docked at port, ships require power to maintain their lights, heating, cooling, and other essential vessel functions. Typically, this power is provided by running the ship's diesel-fueled auxiliary engines. Shore power, also known as cold-ironing onshore power supply (OPS) or alternative marine power, provides electrical power from the shore to a ship. At the same time, it's docked, thereby allowing a ship's auxiliary engines to be turned off and the burning of diesel fuel to cease. Therefore, shore power is an effective way of reducing air emissions and improving local air quality. Additionally, by providing ship operators with an alternative to running diesel auxiliary engines while docked, shore power technology also reduces ship owners' fuel costs, increasing ports' competitiveness. The core technologies of shore power systems include power transmission and frequency conversion. Because electricity standards vary from country to country (e.g., 60 Hz in North America versus 50 Hz in most European and Asian countries), shore power systems typically require frequency converters to convert the port's electrical frequency to a frequency suitable for use by ships. In addition, shore power systems require high power transmission capability, stable voltage regulation, and safe and reliable cable connections. A shore power system is typically made of 3 main subsystems: 1. Electrical substation 2. Interface system 3. Ship’s electrical equipment on board. The Electrical substation converts the electricity from the grid, or from a local dedicated generator using clean or low carbon fuel, into the right voltage and frequency for the vessels. These systems require electrical protection devices, transformers, frequency converters, power meters and safety control systems. The Interface or cable management system is a system typically installed on shore (containerized or dock mounted, sometimes barge-mounted), or on ship, that stores, deploys and recovers safely the cables and connectors necessary for the shore power connection. The Cable Management System (CMS) cables then plug in to a receptacle with sockets or inlets. Ship’s Electrical Equipment is the additional electrical equipment (switchboard, control systems, transformers, power monitoring and control systems) that a ship needs to install in the engine room and near the connection point on deck to receive shore power. This equipment can be easily fitted in the hull for a new building, however, to retrofit existing vessels, one often needs to find extra space. How does Shore Side work: •The power grid (8kV, 50Hz) feeds the power conversion system, such as an e-house or container in the port. •In this e-house or container, electrical power is converted to the IEC standard, which is 60hz and, for most vessels, 6.6kV or Direct Current for a battery charging application. The power conversion system includes a converter, transformer, cooling, and firefighting system. •The cable handling system then allows the heavy cables to be lifted to the ship. On the ship, an incoming panel is placed in a confined room, where the operator connects the ship to shore power. •The power is often supplied via a transformer (if the ship grid is low voltage) connected to the main switchboard. Worldwide there are approximately 4,500 commercial vessels with a gross tonnage greater than 5,000 tons that are currently equipped for shore power. Analysis of the global fleet by APO that approximately 15% of container vessels are shore power equipped along with around 35% of cruise ships. This number continues to increase and can vary significantly by vessel type and region. With California and China ports requiring the use of shore power, many shore power–ready vessels are currently operating in the Pacific. APO Analysis of public vessel connection data for cruise ships calling on the ports of Juneau and Los Angeles, which are both shore power equipped, shows that nearly one quarter (77 out of 323) of the global shore power equipped cruise ships visit these two ports. Similarly, vessel connection data for container ships calling on the ports of Los Angeles and Oakland indicate that around 15.2 % (819 out of 5,371) of the global shore power equipped container ships visit these two ports. These counts do not represent a complete inventory of all vessels equipped with shore power, but instead provide a lower bound value for cruise and container ship shore power readiness. In China, shore power is available at all container terminal berths at the Port of Shenzhen, which offers subsidies for construction of shore power berths (30%), fully subsidizing demand charges, and fully subsidizing electricity prices to align with the rate demanded by the government which also factors in the price of oil. The Port of Shanghai has entered an "EcoPartnership" with the Port of Los Angeles to facilitate sharing shore power information and have created a Green Shipping Corridor between the two ports. China has mandated that China-flagged public service vessels, inland river vessels, and river-sea vessels built on or after January 1, 2019, be equipped with a shore power system. China also mandated that additional China-flagged vessels built on or after January 1, 2020, including coastal container ships, cruise ships and ferries, passenger ships over 3,000 metric tons, and dry bulk carriers over 50,000 metric tons be equipped with shore power systems. It should also be noted that shore power applications are expanding in Europe. EU regulation 2014/94/EU requires European ports to provide shore power by 2025. As more European ports offer shore power, there are likely to be more shore power–ready vessels in the Atlantic. At present, shore power has not been extensively adopted globally. However, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), transportation and environment advocacy groups, and port certification groups have been encouraging ports throughout the world to adopt shore power systems. Five major European ports (Antwerp, Bremerhaven, Hamburg, Haropa, and Rotterdam) have also signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly commit to the maximum deployment of onshore power supply facilities for ultra-large container ships by 2028. The Port of Hamburg, Germany, has been introducing land-based power supply facilities for cruise ships since 2017, leading to an increase in the port's attractiveness. A list of 68 shore power-equipped ports around the world has been compiled by APO.
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