Identifying Actions to Prepare Electricity Infrastructure in Seaports for Future Power Supplying Cruise Ships with Energy from Land

Abstract

Cruise ships are unfortunately at the infamous forefront of the means of maritime transport emitting the largest amounts of harmful substances into the atmosphere and aquatic environment. At the initiative of IMO and the European Union, formal restrictions were introduced regarding the level of harmful emissions on the high seas and in ports generated by seagoing vessels. To meet these challenges, shipowners have invested in various technological solutions on their ships to reduce the number of harmful emissions, and by ordering new vessels; they promote the use of pro-ecological solutions related to energy saving and eliminate environmental harm. However, despite the actions taken by shipowners, seaports unfortunately lag behind the challenges and expectations of the market and are still not prepared, for example, to power the ships moored in ports with shore-side energy to reduce the environmental pollution when the ships are at berth. The aim of this paper is to identify actions taken by seaport authorities to prepare electricity infrastructure in seaports to power vessels with energy from the land. Key legal restrictions concerning reduction in pollutions emitted from ships in the ports are also described and analyzed. The results of the study also show the approach of seaports to the issue of Onshore Energy Supply for cruise ships. The research was conducted among the selected ports in the Baltic Sea Region where cruise ships are accepted. The following research questions were formulated: (1) What legal regulations oblige seaports and shipowners to reduce the level of pollutions emitted into the environment? (2) Do the ports use a benchmark to assess the level of harmful emissions when defining the amount of port fees for cruise shipowners? (3) How are cruise ships powered in the port? (4) What investments are planned in the port regarding the infrastructure related to the diversification of shore-side electricity for the ships? The studies were conducted by using a few research methods, i.e., the desk research method, the exploration method, and the CAWI Computer Assisted Web Interview. The results of this research can provide an interesting source of information both for cruise ship owners and cruise seaport authorities, but also potentially for shipyards where new vessels are constructed.

Onshore power supply–trends in research studies

“…The main reason for investing in OPS refers to the environmental benefits that reduce noise, vibrations and emissions of pollution from ships when they are berthed. Hence, in databases there are numerous publications on this subject presenting environmental benefits of using OPS technology (Kizielewicz and Skrzeszewska, 2021;Sciberras et al, 2015;Saxena et al, 2012;Kumar et al, 2018;He et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2021b;Reusser and Pérez, 2021;Chen, 2022;Siu et al, 2022;Su et al, 2023) in particular in the area of CO 2 reduction potential of OPS (Stolz et al, 2021). The research carried out by Reusser and Pérez (2021) (Wang et al, 2021b) is a good example showing "the reduction in the specific fuel consumption of the auxiliary engines, thus reducing emissions in 20% for CO 2 , 34% for NO x and 30% for SO x " thanks to applying CI power configuration.…”

“…Reducing shipboard emissions Environmental Ben46efits of OPS Legal analysis (legal standards, law regulations, etc.) Regulation strategy for OPS Standardization in the Design of OPS Source: own elaboration on the base of: (IMO, 2015; Innes and Monios, 2018;IAPH, 2010;Winkel et al, 2016;Stolz et al, 2021;Bakar et al, 2022;Bullock et al, 2023;Hulme, 2006;AAPA, 2007;Haddadian and Haddadian, 2011;Acciaro et al, 2014;Qiong and Xiao, 2015;Sciberras et al, 2015;Yang and Chai, 2016;Atallah et al, 2017;Yu et al, 2017;Chengdi et al, 2018;He et al, 2018;Ji et al, 2018;Tarnapowicz and German-Galkin, 2018;Gutierrez-Romero et al, 2019;Kumar et al, 2019;Sun et al, 2019;Vlachokostas et al, 2019;Zis, 2019;Colarossi and Principi, 2020;He et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2021a;Jung and Schindler, 2021;Kizielewicz and Skrzeszewska, 2021;Martínez-Lopez et al, 2021;Ortiz-Imedio et al, 2021;Peng et al, 2021;Spengler and Tovar, 2021;Badakhshan et al, 2022;Farrukh et al, 2022;Galkin and Tarnapowicz, 2022;Karimi et al, 2022;Qiu et al, 2022;Williamsson et al, 2022;…”