Overcoming onshore power issues

So the European Seaports Organisation (ESPO) is working on a framework that can guide ports and policy makers in developing an effective and intelligent approach for OPS.

“The cost of installing OPS is too high to just decide to go for OPS everywhere, without a proper analysis of costs and benefits,” said Isabelle Ryckbost, ESPO’s secretary general.

“By pooling the experiences from ports who have done their homework on OPS, we have been able to produce a practical list of do’s and don’ts for OPS.”

Key criteria

In its framework “Towards an intelligent legislative framework for OPS”, ESPO has identified key criteria to be assessed together, including the OPS readiness of the ship and if the vessel is spending sufficient time at berth for it to make sense to connect.

In addition to these key criteria, some port-specific circumstances are also considered including the location of the berth and of the port, berth size and layout to match the vessel connection, access to public funding and available grid capacity.

ESPO said there should be corresponding engagements between vessels, energy providers and ports in order to make OPS a viable instrument in terms of both the environment and cost.

When preparing the financial case for OPS deployment, the organisation said that it’s not only the cost of setting up the system that needs to be considered, but also the grid connectivity and operational costs with potentially high fixed costs that are not borne by the user.

For ESPO, an ambitious OPS deployment plan must also be accompanied by an ambitious OPS funding policy.