An increasingly influencial voice

The association also publishes independent research, develops recommendations on common standards, and represents stakeholders’ interests on safety, technology and environmental issues.

As PEMA’s profile, and its scope of activity continue to grow, we have launched this regular column in which we will reveal the association’s latest activities and details of its recommendations and publications.

“PEMA marked its tenth anniversary last year, and member manufacturers range from niche equipment suppliers to major conglomerates, representing key players in all areas of the ports and terminals segment,” said Lars Meurling, PEMA’s Safety & Environment Committee Chair.

The association also co-operates with other major maritime bodies, such as the TT Club and ICHCA International, to publish guidance on issues such as safety standards. Internally, PEMA divides its activities between three main committees: its Safety & Environment Committee, Automation & Control Technologies Committee, and Equipment Design & Infrastructure Committee.

“We’re working to improve safety, operational efficiency, and environmental performance at the world’s ports and terminals,” Mr Meurling added.

PEMA regularly publishes white papers, recommendations and independent reports on port equipment use, characteristics and sales, as well as hosting seminars and panel discussions at a variety of industry events. You can find a full list of PEMA’s published material at: pema.org/publications/

Working towards more environmentally responsible ports

One of the primary areas where PEMA supports the ports and terminals sector is in promoting technologies to meet legislative requirements related to environmental issues. Key areas here are shore side electricity, also known as ‘cold ironing’ or shore power.

Shore power involves ships in port switching off their engines and connecting to the electrical grid. This results in substantial reductions in emissions of sulphur and nitrogen oxides and particulate matter.

Shore power technologies have been in use for many years, but are today becoming more common on ships and in ports. In the EU, funding is available for ports to introduce shore power technologies, and the 28-member bloc introduced the Deployment of Alternative Fuel Infrastructures directive in October 2014, which makes shore side electricity mandatory (in most cases) for European ports by 2025.

While issues over common standards for shore side electricity between Europe, the US and Asia had impacted implementation, an international shore side connection standard for larger vessels, (ISO/IEC/IEEE 80005-1), such as cruise and container ships, tankers, bulk vessels, passenger ferries, (Ro/Ro and Ro/Pax), has been in place since 2012. This is also part of the European directive, under which all ports will be obliged to offer shore side electricity supply.

“Shore power technologies already exist to meet virtually all types of port applications and requirements. Furthermore, an increasing number of companies involved in the shore side electricity sector are joining PEMA. It’s an area where we’re seeing growing interest and increasingly greater activity on a number of levels,” explained PEMA’s Safety & Environment Committee Vice Chair, Loréne Grandidier.

The International Electrotechnical Commission Standardisation Committee continues its work to broaden the application of this specification, and is also developing a standard for smaller ships, (80005-3), such as offshore supply vessels, river cruisers, and larger fisheries vessels.

“PEMA is also currently working on a technical paper on the application of shore side electricity, which will highlight best practice in the application of these technologies,” Ms Grandidier added.

We’ll bring you details of the technical paper in a later edition of this column.