Shore power go-ahead

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Shore power plans at a UK port are getting closer to fruition.

Portsmouth City Council’s cabinet has approved a strategy for shore power provision at Portsmouth International Port, owned and operated by Portsmouth City Council.

Mike Sellers, port director, said: “We’re determined to be industry leaders when it comes to sustainability. This innovative approach, which incorporates existing technologies already available or planned at the port, means we can look to have shore power up and running by the end of 2022 for smaller cruise ships. We’re now looking at long-term plans to roll out this capability to our other berths.”

Battery storage solution

Shore power plans include the short-term development of a battery storage solution, for providing shore power to smaller cruise vessels, as well as a long-term ambition of supplying all vessels that visit the port.

With an existing AI controlled ‘master’ battery on-site, funded by Innovate UK, combined with new battery storage being installed alongside a new solar array, the port will have enough energy to supply small cruise ships whilst alongside. One of the port’s long-standing customers, Noble Caledonia, has agreed to upgrade their vessels to take shore power, when the project goes ahead.

For the longer term, options are now being explored to increase the amount of power available at the port, so that shore power can be rolled out to all of the berths at Portsmouth. However, this will require government support across the ports industry, given the investment required.

Portsmouth City Council’s Cabinet also committed to continue their support for the port’s green recovery sustainability drive, which includes a hydrogen electrolyser on the port, rolling-out the current fuel filtering project and the construction and piloting of an external fine particle filter at the port boundary.

Portsmouth aims to become one of the UK’s first zero-emission ports. Its plans to improve air quality and tackle carbon emissions have been put together with the government’s Maritime 2050 strategy in mind.