Cold Ironing: Environmental-friendly Power for Ships at Ports

During ships' layovers in ports, specific amounts of electric power are still needed to supply further operations such as cargo handling, air conditioners, lighting, etc. When tied up in ports, the standard power source for ships is currently provided by their onboard auxiliary engines using bunker fuels, such as Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) and Marine Gas Oil (MGO).

By doing so, ships account for the most harmful emissions in the port area. The larger vessels are, the higher their emissions and noises: emissions vary significantly from type and tonnage of vessels, such as cruise ships, container ships, ferries, RoRo Ships, etc. Therefore, port cities and areas can be where primary pollution occurs.

What is "Cold Ironing"? The Maritime Solution for Air Pollution

The maritime industry has sought attainable and practicable technology measures and schemes to mitigate air pollution in port cities. One solution is to mandate that ships not using environmentally friendly fuels, which do not meet emission restrictions and might generate harmful emissions, utilise "Cold Ironing" with Shore-to-Ship Power. This refers to supplying shoreside electrical power to a vessel at berth while its main and auxiliary engines are shut down.

 

How Does the Cold Ironing Process Work?

The term "Cold Ironing" indicates a technology that enables ships, while layover in ports, to shut down their auxiliary engines and to be supplied with electricity via onshore power supply systems conventionally streamed from the grid power.

The primary technical requirements of Cold Ironing are:

On the ship side, i.e., onboard the ship, it shall either already be equipped or retrofitted with a ship-to-shore connection (in accordance with the IEC 80005 standard) to provide electricity to an onshore power system. Otherwise, the connection between the ships and onshore power supply systems can also be achieved via an AMP (Alternative Marine Power) system with a cable reel or cable management system.

On the port side, at the berth where the ship will be tied up to, the electrical infrastructure and construction for the Cold Ironing system, i.e. shore-to-ship connection, has been established (per the IEC 80005 Standard), which usually comprised of:

  • Frequency converter (converts 50Hz from the grid power to 60Hz needed for the ships );
  • Voltage transformer (to meet low/medium/high voltage of each ship);
  • Cable management systems often include a cable reel, as the power cables shall be lifted and pulled by cranes or other applicable equipment from/to the position where the shore power connector is located.

 

Cold Ironing Benefits: from Air Quality to Noise Reduction

By shutting down the ship's diesel generators, which generally use fossil fuels, and supplying the vessel with shoreside electricity instead, the land-based Cold Ironing energy source usually comes from grid power or an external micro power plant. This energy can be generated from low-emission, renewable and sustainable sources such as wind or solar.

Cold Ironing is an effective anti-pollution measure with a multitude of benefits:

  • Enabling significant reduction of harmful emissions due to fewer fuel consumption, relieving the air pollution at port areas
  • Reducing the noise pollution produced by the ships' engines
  • Ensuring a higher energy utilisation because ships' engines usually have lower efficiency
  • Prolonging the ship engines' lifetime whilst saving maintenance cost

 

Challenges in Implementing Cold Ironing Shore Power Systems

  • Conventional Onshore Power Supply (OPS) systems are stationary installations – it is not economically and technically feasible to furnish every berth
  • The additional procedure to convert the frequency and voltage from grid power to the ones required by each ship, possibly accompanied by instability factors, such as unpredictable troubleshooting
  • Feedback from current operational and technical practices - that many ships are reluctant to adopt shore-side electricity - due to long connection duration and often unexpected technical errors, which raised ship owners' and operators' safety concerns for their vessels and crews
  • Grid power plants often face limited capacity problems and coverage difficulty, especially in remote port areas

 

 

The Role of Ports in Cold Ironing Technology Integration

"Green Port" has been the paramount objective for the ports to accomplish, in the interest of combating global climate change whilst conforming to local environment regulations, and fundamentally, improving the air quality in the port areas, safeguarding a healthy atmosphere for the citizens of the port cities.

Hence, besides enacting concrete regulation towards emission restriction, it is beneficial for port authorities and power providers to deploy and implement Onshore Power Supply (OPS) infrastructures for berths in ports, making them accessible and easy to connect to enforce and promote Shore Power Scheme - an efficient & effective emission-reduction measure, to the end users, i.e. ships.

 

Becker PowerPac - an advantageous Cold Ironing Solution

With Becker PowerPacs, eCap Marine facilitates a modern, environmentally friendly, safe, and economical option. It serves as a micro power plant that provides shoreside electricity to major types of vessels, either inland vessels or seagoing vessels, such as RoRo ships, ferries, CTVs, and container ships, during their port layovers. Becker PowerPacs are designed and constructed for supplying shoreside electricity during vessel layovers in ports. All components and engineering strictly comply with required norms and standards, such as machinery directives, TÜV, BV, etc., and local laws and regulations for energy and the environment.

A standard configured Becker LNG PowerPac® is a compact power generation system that intelligently combines a gas combustion engine with an output of 1.5 MW continuous electrical power to a container ship, with decisively fewer emissions than the typical power generation from the ships' own auxiliary engines. The system and its exchangeable LNG tank systems have the dimensions of two 40ft high cube ISO containers. For large container ships with higher electricity demands to receive continuous electrical power, two Becker LNG PowerPac® can be cascaded and operated in parallel, contributing a total of 3 MW.

The Becker PowerPac can provide shoreside electrical power to vessels which still need to be equipped or retrofitted with shore power connectors (per IEC 80005 Standard). The connection can be realised via an AMP (Alternative Maritime Power) system, usually fitted with a cable management system inside its container.

eCap's Cold Ironing Technology Solution - One standard configured Becker LNG PowerPac® with 1.5 MW

Dimensions:
- 2 x 40 ft high cube container

Capacity:
- Fuel: 8.2 t LNG
- 28 – 30 hrs operation (@ 90% load)

Power output:
- 1,500 kWel. island mode
- Frequency 60 Hz
- Voltage 6.6 kV
- Electrical connection acc. to IEC 80005-1

Weight:
- 60 t (fully equipped)

CE-Certified, partly classified and risk assessed by IACS members (DNVGL/BV)

Extendibility of operating hours by positioning a second LNG-Tanktainer on top

Cascadable for up to 3 MW power supply


Simple action – significant immediate effect:
The Becker PowerPac is a quickly implemented solution with its delivery time of eight months, no required infrastructure investments and has a high impact on port emission reductions.

The innovative Becker PowerPac excels as an exceptional technology solution for establishing electrical infrastructure at the port side for cold ironing in ports. In comparison to conventional stationary shore power systems, the Becker PowerPac distinguished itself for the following innovations and advancements:

  • Cold ironing Systems customised for container ships, ferries or RoRo ships
  • A flexible, independent onboard energy supply
  • Standby as Backup and Emergency Power Generation
  • Significant and immediate reduction of harmful emissions
  • Quick implementation – usable in any port
  • 100% maritime solution as a separate power generation unit
  • In line with energy laws, there are no state taxes, grid fees, etc.
  • Suitable for all kinds of container terminal operations
  • No extensive infrastructure investments are necessary
  • Add extra electrical capacity to the Grid Power at port areas

 

Becker PowerPac - a mobile Cold Ironing Shore Power Solution

The high flexibility of the Becker PowerPac allows it to be easily moved to and to serve multiple mooring locations as per request and planning in advance. Due to this high flexibility and its designated integration into regular terminal operational processes. The handling of Beck PowerPac is part of the terminal loading/unloading operations.

 

Handling Process of Becker PowerPac for Supplying Shore Power

Under current port operations and administration flow, a ship is required to register and report information such as its ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival), ETD (Estimated Time of Departure), CII (Carbon Intensity Indicator), etc. It is, therefore, practical to be included in daily port operations to plan and organise each use request of Becker PowerPac in advance, smoothly and trouble-free. Serial actions, such as:

  • Shipside: ship operators shall prepare and eventually shut down main engines, adjust the ship's power supply board accordingly, get the crane or lifting equipment and/or cable management systems ready to direct/accept power cables to/from the portside
  • Portside: terminal operators shall transport the Becker PowerPac to the designated berth so the preparation and commissioning for the readiness of this system can be done before the vessel arrives

Once this pre-reported ship is tied up at the designated berth in port, as per its individual request and booking, the Becker PowerPac will be:

  • either being place onboard (normally positioned on the aft ship/outer ship side of the vessel)
  • or stays on the shore side and to be connected to ship via established Cable Management Systems. The distance and exact location depends on each terminal's physical condition

All those actions and movements are done via the port terminal’s locally available, standardised loading equipment, such as gantry cranes, ship-to-shore cranes and van carriers.

A standard configured Becker LNG PowerPac® weighs not exceeding 60 tons (including the LNG-Tanktainer). If 60 tons exceeds some terminals' lifting and/or transportation equipment weight limits, the handling and movement of the Becker LNG PowerPac® can be done in two separate actions with the PowerUnit and the Tanktainer accordingly.

Step 1:

The Becker PowerPac is transported from a stand-by position at the terminal to the ship by a straddle carrier.

Step 2:

The LNG-Tanktainer is delivered and connected to the Becker PowerPac, which is now ready to be moved on board.

Step 3:
The Becker PowerPac is ready to supply power and is picked up by a gantry crane to be moved on board the vessel.

Step 4:
The Becker PowerPac is lowered into position on the aft ship/outer ship side of the vessel.

The Future of Cold Ironing: Trends and Innovations

Becker PowerPac can be deployed with various fuel sources, besides using a combustion engine, such as Becker LNG PowerPac® (Liquified Natural Gas) or LBG PowerPac (Liquified Bio Gas); other gasform fuels and, optimally, green alternative fuels are feasible too. Our solutions also include:

Heading to ZERO-Emission with eCap Marine