Shore power survey

For a number of years, Copenhagen has positioned itself as one of the major cruise ports in Northern Europe. Not only is this because Copenhagen is an attractive city for cruise tourists, but also because it offers good facilities for cruise ships, because the airport has many direct flights and because there is good vessel access to the Baltic and to the Norwegian coast.

Copenhagen is working towards being carbon-neutral in 2025, so it is for this reason that the question of providing shore power to cruise ships has been raised.

The view is that shore power can help to reduce the environmental impact of cruise ships. Shore power comprises an installation on shore and an installation aboard a ship, enabling the ship to be connected to the grid while it is in port. It is relatively costly to establish an on-shore facility, but not all ships can receive shore power.

The study was commissioned by the City of Copenhagen’s Clean Air plan and implemented by a decision of the municipal Finance Committee in September 2014. It’s part of a cooperative project with other major cruise ports in the Baltic to examine the possibility of establishing shore power for cruise ships.

If a shore power facility is established, Copenhagen will be among one of the first cities to offer shore power to cruise ships.

The possibility of shore power for cruise ships in Copenhagen has been explored on several occasions. Both City & Port Development, together with CMP and Dansk Energi and the City of Copenhagen have produced notes on the set-up costs of shore power over the last three years.

The reason why the parties have chosen to do this latest study is the desire of the City of Copenhagen Finance Committee to produce a final proposal for a decision on shore power for cruise ships.

The analysis describes the options for establishing shore power at the cruise terminal on Ocean Quay in Nordhavn, including the practical and financial implications. Compared to the earlier assessments, this study aims to go deeper into the opportunities and risks associated with a shore power facility and to analyse how shore power can actually be established and used for cruise ships in Copenhagen.