Onshore Power Supply is already a reality at the Port of Barcelona

“The OPS has been specifically designed to be compatible with the BEST terminal operation and will allow up to two ships to be connected simultaneously, adapting the electrical current to the needs of each ship,” he tells PierNext Bruno Hervàs, official shorepower data engineer of the Port of Barcelona.

The pier has three junction boxes specifically designed to be integrated into the terminal, and according to the estimated calculations, a container ship stays 41.18 hours at berth, during which time it consumes 73.02 MWh of energy and, thanks to the OPS, 49.16 tons of CO2 will be saved. Annually, 2,500 tons of CO2 will be eliminated, the equivalent of about 135,000 cars driving at 30 km/h for a year.

OPS challenges for ports

Pioneering the implementation of the OPS system in Europe has involved a number of technical challenges and has been “quite a challenge,” describes Carlos Guerra, electrification engineer at the Port of Barcelona.

“Basically, this is a very new technology in Europe and we have practically started from scratch. We are pointing the way forward for the rest of the Spanish ports,” he says.

Guerra shares that they have been in close contact with the port of Hamburg, making visits to their facilities and exchanging information, as well as with European entities for the drafting of regulations.

Álvaro Rodríguez, president of Puertos del Estado, said during the inauguration event that they are working to reconcile two regulations; the port and the electricity sector, to “allow power terms to be reduced as much as possible and the price charged for the supply of electricity to be competitive. We are also working with Red Eléctrica to transmit in its new development plan what the electrical grid of the future has to be and the needs of the ports for projects like this,” he explained during the presentation of the Port of Barcelona's OPS system.

Rodriguez ended his presentation by sharing a couple of facts: the supply of electricity to ships will mean that all ports will have to double their electricity consumption by 2030 and, “what is much more important, a fivefold increase in installed power,” he said.

OPS challenges for ships

As for container ships and other vessels that will be connected to the power grid, Hervàs, official shorepower data engineer at the Port of Barcelona, explains that the vessels will be equipped with electrical switchgear similar to that found on land; essentially transformers and frequency converters.

At the stern of the ship is a small container with a cable reel that runs down to the dock and plugs into the junction box. This cable goes to electrical panels, also specific to the OPS, where the electricity conversion takes place.

“A specificity specific to ships is that their electronics are very sensitive to frequency and voltage variations and can break down very easily. A lot of the equipment runs on electric motors with variable speed. To avoid damage to these motors, the electricity on board must be very well controlled, both in terms of voltage and frequency. The ships have electrical panels on board that manage and control the electricity so that it is as stable as possible and does not generate problems in the installation.

Bruno Hervàs, official shorepower data engineer of the Port of Barcelona

In this sense, Hervàs points out that they do not necessarily have to be new generation ships, although practically all ships, container ships, cruise ships and ferries, already have this facility. Those that do not, are undergoing a retrofit to be ready.

“Installing this system on container ships is relatively easy because they have a lot of space in the area where they are housed. On the other hand, on ferries and cruise ships it is more complicated because you have to find a place for them, since they are equipment that takes up a lot of space, plus an additional electrical panel that has to be added in the engine room.”

One of the problems, explains the engineer, is that there are few manufacturers supplying this equipment to ships. Although technologically speaking they are not excessively complicated equipment, they are large and the powers are very high, which is generating long waiting times and an important bottleneck.

“Connecting ships is very complex, as not everyone is ready,” shares Ana Arévalo, head of the Shorepower department at the Port of Barcelona. For this reason, the person in charge of coordinating the project in Barcelona recommends taking it one step at a time.

“Safety must be a priority, so we are going to develop many tests to be able to make a first assessment of the system in December and analyze the data obtained, such as the number of emissions we have avoided or how many ships have been connected.”

Ana Arévalo, head of the Shorepower department of the Port of Barcelona

Pilots at BEST and Grimaldi terminals

In the next two years, the Port of Barcelona will carry out two pilots to test the connections with two types of ships; container ships and ferries.

The operation is as follows: when the ship arrives at the dock, it shuts down the auxiliary engines and connects to the shore grid to generate electricity. “The OPS takes the current from the shore grid at 25,000 volts, transforms it to 6,600 volts, which is the power at which the ship operates and, if the ship needs it, transforms the 50 Hertz that we have here in Spain to the 60 Hertz that the ship has,” Hervàs explains.