Tipping the emissions and power scale

All ports consume power, many generate power, increasing numbers provide power and a high proportion handle fuel for power generation. Resilience and continuity of supply and network is vital.

That fact was clearly illustrated when a North Sea storm surge hit ABP Immingham five years ago; it’s an extreme example, but half of the port’s network of 40 electricity substations had some water damage and ten were seriously affected. Power supplies were knocked out to road and quayside lighting, machinery, cranes, cargo handling equipment, the dock’s impounding pumps and a range of companies and operations. The urgency of fixing the situation was not just a port issue — the situation was a threat to the supply of power, fuel and petrochemicals across the UK.

As ports around the world strive to be greener through the increasing provision of onshore power supply (OPS) for vessels alongside and through switching equipment from diesel to electric, the supply/demand balance becomes even more critical.

“The future electricity demands of major ports will increase,” says Tim Morris, chief executive of the UK Major Ports Group. “Port equipment will become more electrified. And more data-driven business models may well see increased demand for power. That is even before you incorporate ship-to-shore power connectivity. This will add substantial ‘peaking’ demand on top of the higher ‘baseload’ demand from the port itself.”

Connectivity concerns

An additional factor of concern to many ports is the physical electricity connectivity to the port, he adds. “Similar to the case for transport connectivity, ports are often on the end of spurs off main national or regional arteries. Therefore, substantially-upgraded capacity at the port can mean a requirement for upgrading the distribution network the port connects to.”

This can be prohibitively expensive, particularly given the practice of charging the incremental consumer the full cost of network upgrade costs, says Mr Morris. “For one UKMPG member, this put the payback period on a shoreside power project to over 100 years. Also, connectivity agreements with the distribution network operators generally have a ‘use it or lose it’ feature, so even if you have paid for upgrades, unless you use your capacity on a relatively frequent basis you lose access. Clearly that’s a significant concern, given the low level of demand currently and its intermittency/spikiness over the short and mid-terms.”

The sight of wind turbines and solar panels is nothing unusual in a port these days. A number of ports have significant onsite renewable energy supplies, points out Mr Morris. “Some are hosts to significant power generation projects — these help, or will help, with energy supply resilience.”

In 2000, the Port of Gothenburg led the way as the first port to introduce a high-voltage OPS for cargo vessels. It had already been offering (since 1989), and continues to offer, low-voltage shoreside electricity to three ro-pax vessels.

How can ports maximise and ensure continuous power supplies, particularly when demand can be uncertain? “We have a close connection to Gothenburg Energy Company (GENAB), so they are more or less one step ahead of what we’re planning concerning work and power consumption,” says Paulo Campos, the Port of Gothenburg’s maintenance manager for electrical infrastructure.

Excess demand

There’s always a risk that a port requires more power than there is available, he says, but the port works intensively with GENAB, focusing on detailed planning of works that need to be done to prevent this. “The fact that we’re making long-term plans does help with this — GENAB can also make long-term plans on keeping their power supply up to our needs.”

In fact, GENAB can disconnect the OPS remotely, because it has lower priority than the supply to the city of Gothenburg. “But as far I know, this has never happened. They have been working with this type of system for over 20 years now.”

In Sweden, ports can rely on a really strong, continuous power supply and, if something were to happen, it would only last for ten to 45 minutes at most until the connection is restored, says Mr Campos. “The Swedish grid has been designed in a smart way, so whenever there is a failure, the grid can be rerouted very quickly to restore the connection and isolate the location of the failure.”

The port also has resilience built in in the form of generators, and so on — but this is only for sensitive systems such as firefighting equipment, alarms and evacuation lights.

Providing OPS means a gain for the environment, he points out — the ships can shut down, so there’s less pollution. “Next to that, the power to the ship is tax-free, so that’s a good incentive for the ships to invest in making their ships suitable for onshore power. The technical challenge here is the uniqueness of each ship, which requires a different solution in adaption to onshore power. But that’s another discussion, of course.”

Tax benefits

Sweden, Germany and Denmark have all had a permit under the EU Energy Taxation Directive to temporarily apply a reduced rate of taxation to shoreside electricity for ships.

Under present EU law, electricity produced from the combustion of marine fuel onboard ships is tax-exempt, but ships plugging into OPS have to pay taxes applied to electricity. This, says the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO), has been a significant barrier for the uptake of shoreside electricity for ships, often being the reason why it does not make a strong business case. That, however, looks likely to change.

In September, the European Parliament’s transport committee supported the removal of tax on OPS for ships in port. This has been welcomed by ESPO’s secretary general, Isabelle Ryckbost, who says that while ports have invested heavily in shoreside electricity infrastructure, the tax situation has meant this infrastructure is often underused. A permanent tax exemption for OPS would enhance its uptake, she says.

Many port operators are now looking to achieve zero emissions with their handling equipment, says Hyster Europe — and manufacturers are working on trucks that use alternative, more environmentally friendly power sources.

Hyster is developing a zero-emission, high-capacity electric lift truck, with the idea that in the near future ports may be able to electrify their entire big truck fleets. Initially it is developing a 52-tonne capacity laden container handling unit powered by lithium-ion battery. In the future, the company expects to offer trucks based on lithium-ion or fuel cell technology, or a combination of both.

However, preparing for a zero-emissions future will require port operations to consider potential changes to their infrastructure, says strategy and solutions director Jan-Willem van den Brand. “With the switch to electric power sources, charging will be a key consideration. For small terminals with a limited number of machines, the infrastructure impact is expected to be limited. For larger operations, the electrification of equipment may add complexity to the logistic planning system.”

Managing peak power demand will be a challenge, says Mr van den Brand. “If the whole fleet suddenly becomes electric, the peak power demand resulting from charging may be considerable and investment will be required to cope with this.”

TESTING THE VIABILITY OF MOBILE POWER

A new kind of mobile generator to provide power to container ships is being trialled in the Port of Hamburg this year.

In a project funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, the Becker LNG PowerPac prototype has been successfully tested multiple times with some of Hapag-Lloyd’s 20,000 teu ships at the HHLA Container Terminal Burchardkai.

A compact system the size of two 40-foot containers, the PowerPac unit is made up of a gas-powered 1.5 mW generator and an LNG tank. A container gantry crane lifts the unit from the quay to the stern of the ship, where it is then connected to the ship’s power system.

Hamburg already provides OPS for cruise ships and is planning OPS stations for containerships, says Uwe Radke, Hamburg Port Authority’s (HPA) chief electrician. “We had plenty of requests for OPS for container ships and we expect to have this in place in three years,” he says. Meanwhile, the PowerPacs provide a step between ships’ diesel-powered operations and full OPS.

HPA works closely with distribution system operator Stromnetz Hamburg to ensure its power supplies, including demands for OPS, he says. “Container ships need about 1.5 mW — cruise ships are more challenging, needing 6.5 mW. When we are supplying two at the same time, we check this with our power supplier to ensure it is made possible.”

Stromnetz Hamburg spokesperson Anette Polkehn-Appel says: “Hamburg is currently working on a strategy to supply container ships with shore power. This is part of the Hamburg Clean Air Plan. The supply of electricity from the grid is an option that is being tested.”

As to continuity of supply, with a grid connection the power supply will be assured, she says. But a second option is to use specific generators such as the PowerPacs.