Shore Power

Flexible, effecient, and cost-effective shore power that allows ships at berth to plug into the electrical grid and turn off their auxiliary diesel engines.

Also known as Onshore Power Supply (OPS), cold ironing, and shore-to-ship power to name a few terms, PowerCon pioneered the shore power industry with a modular approach. By integrating the electrical components into standard 20 ft. shipping containers, we pioneered the “building block” approach which allows us to put together the most flexible, compact, and scalable solution for any port.

The benefits of a containerized shore power system are many. Most importantly, the compact design minimizes the installation’s footprint, allowing better utilization of valuable real estate and port areas. Secondly, it allows us to pre-manufacture, pre-assemble, and pre-test our solutions in our factory instead of onsite. Thirdly, once onsite, the containerized design ensures easy and fast installation.

We build all our solutions according to the international standard for shore power (IEC/IEEE/ISO 80005) and are also a member of this standard committee. PowerCon supplies both high and low voltage shore power solutions and covers all vessel types, from the largest cruise ships to container ships to smaller fishing vessels and ferries as seen from some of our main references below.

Although occasionally functioning as sub-contractor for the shore power equipment, PowerCon has done many projects as turn-key supplier, undertaking the whole scope and implementing complete end-to-end solutions. Such additional tasks beyond the shore power system and cable management solution (CMS) can include grid connection upgrades, civil works, and cabling, as well as any related services such as maintenance, remote support, and daily operations.

Specifically for CMS, which ensures the cable connection between shore and ship, we have worked with all main companies who specialize in these solutions. Among others, these include Cavotec, Stemman-Technik, Igus, Zinus, and Shore-Link. However, PowerCon has also developed its own CMS designs, underlining why PowerCon is the most experienced and flexible shore power provider today.

Over the recent years, PowerCon has started supplying shore power solutions for container terminals. Launched by a pilot project named “PowerFlex”, we set out to design and implement low-cost and flexible shore power supply for container ships that included onboard battery charging in the system design.

Background
Container ships continue to rely on the highly pollutant marine fuel to operate, contributing an estimated 50-60% of all ship emissions. If the electricity for shore power comes from renewables, the technology can eliminates all CO2, air pollutants, noise, and vibration at the container terminals by allowing the ships to plug in while they are in port. However, with the additional possibility to charge onboard batteries, shore power can have an even more significant global CO2 mitigation potential.

Pushing the boundaries
PowerCon has over the years been a part of the successful implementation of various shore power systems, particularly for cruise ships, adding significant savings to the cruise ports. This made it obvious to offer the same savings to the container ship segment and expand the system capabilities to charge onboard batteries too, collectively named OPS-Charger. Therefore, the main objective of this project was to advance the technological and market readiness of a competitive shore power solution to supply electricity to container ships at berth charge onboard batteries. For 36 months, we matured, tested, and demonstrated the OPS-Charger in a real case scenarios.

Outcome
The main outcome of the project was a market ready solution suitable for container ports around the world with an attractive payback period. Market adoption is expected to contribute to:

1) reduce greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, noise, and vibration from container ships at berth and at sea, thereby contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals 3, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 14.
2) the circular economy.
3) the creation of high-value blue economy jobs.

Overall, the ambition of this project was to significantly impact the blue economy areas of “New facilities that support the diversification or energy efficiency of ports” and “Cleaner shipping”. The project was supported by a BlueInvest grant from the European Union.

Market adoption
A critical milestone was reached in 2021 when the Port of Kristiansand in Norway became the first adopter of this solution, integrating shore power into it broader port electrification strategy with the charging capability. More ports have since followed, and PowerCon sees an increased interest for shore power from container terminals around the world.