More and more ports are choosing the quickest and most effective route to go green – by installing an ABB shore-to-ship power connection that enables vessels to shut down their diesel engines and use shore-side electricity while in port, thereby reducing noise pollution and cutting CO2 emissions by 98 percent. The latest port to do so is Ystad, one of Sweden’s fastest growing and most competitive cargo and ferry terminals.
Located on the southern tip of Sweden on the Baltic coast, Ystad is Sweden’s fifth largest port, handling some 3,500 sailings annually, including daily ferry services to Poland and Denmark, as well as cruise ships in the summer and cargo vessels all year round.
Thanks to a strong and ambitious investment program, the port has enjoyed double-digit growth in tonnage over the past three years – one of the few ports to grow in the current economic climate. Part of that forward-looking program is a bid to become the region’s greenest port by equipping all its berths with shoreside power connections.
Local partner Processkontroll Elektriska selected ABB to provide a turnkey shore-to-ship solution for all five berths at the port. ABB designed, engineered, supplied and built the entire solution, which feeds electricity from the local power grid to a specially designed ABB substation equipped with powerful frequency converters.
With a power rating of 6.25 MVA (megavolt amperes), the frequency converters are the most powerful in operation at a shore-to-ship installation in the world. They convert the power from 50 Hz, the standard grid frequency in Europe, to the 60 Hz load frequency at which most vessels operate. From the substation, the power is transferred via high voltage underground cables to shoreside cranes that connect the cables to the vessels.
The ABB solution has a unique flexibility in that it adapts both the voltage level and frequency to match those of each vessel – enabling multiple vessels to be powered simultaneously at the port, regardless of any differences in the ships’ voltage level or system frequency.
ABB pioneered shore-to-ship technology at the beginning of the millennium by delivering the world’s first high voltage shoreside power connection for the Swedish port of Gothenburg in 2000. Since then, ABB has provided ports throughout Asia and Europe with shore-to-ship solutions, the most recent of which prior to Ystad was inaugurated in July this year at the Hoek of Holland in the Netherlands.
ABB also supplies turnkey shipside solutions for shoreside power connections, and has provided solutions for all types of vessels worldwide, including container ships, bulk carriers, LNG (liquefied natural gas) carriers, cruise liners and FSO (floating storage and offloading) vessels.
Ystad shore-to-ship installation wins environmental award
On September 27, the port of Ystad was awarded Sweden’s foremost marine environmental award by Maritime Forum “for investing in a flexible shore-to-ship solution for both 50 and 60 Hz. The solution minimizes the shipside investment requirements for shipping companies while improving the environment for the port’s immediate surroundings.”
Source: ABB