Shore power investment

The Port of Barcelona’s Nexigen project to decarbonise port activity and improve air quality will invest €90 million in onshore power supply (OPS).

The additional €20 million will be spent on rolling out the network that includes the port substation, the high-voltage connection to Red Eléctrica’s Ronda Litoral Substation and roll-out of the medium voltage network throughout the port precinct.

“With Nexigen we are preparing for the future, and this will allow the Port of Barcelona to be in the first division of the decarbonisation of port, maritime and logistics activity,” said Damià Calvet, president, Port of Barcelona.

2030 objective

The objective is for the Port of Barcelona to have electrified all the cruise berths, the Prat wharf and the ferry terminals of the Sant Bertran dock and the Costa wharf by 2030, thereby removing 66,000 tonnes of CO2 and 1,234 tonnes of NOx from port activity emissions.

This means “cutting by 38% the tonnes of NOx and CO2 emitted by ships during their stay at the wharf and eliminating 22% of NOx¿and CO2 emissions from all port activity,” said Mr Calvet.

In the long term, the electrification of the docks of the Port of Barcelona will be a key element in achieving the goal of becoming a climate-neutral port by 2050.

Wharf electrification is a complex process that takes time to achieve. In all, 240 kilometres of cable will be laid and 20.5 kilometres of ducts will extend to the terminals.

The Port of Barcelona plans to make the first shore power connections at the BEST container terminal and the Barcelona Ferry Terminal between the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, according to Ana Arévalo, energy transition manager,  Port of Barcelona.

Two years ago, the management board at the port approved the creation of the Wharf Electrification Plan. In March 2021, Red Eléctrica confirmed construction of the new Ronda Litoral Substation, a key infrastructure in the project. This new 220 kV substation will be located very close to the Princep d’Espanya wharf on the south side of the Ronda Litoral ring road.

Furthermore, the tender for the pilot project at the BEST terminal began in January of this year.

The next steps will involve processing the application for access and connection of a position for a large consumer in Red Eléctrica’s Ronda Litoral Substation, once the planning of the electricity transmission network for the period 2021-2026 has been published and putting the pilot project on the Ferry Terminal out to tender during April.