Ships at berth in UK ports will soon draw their power from shore-side batteries charged by renewable energy, rather than running their diesel engines for hours during cargo operations. Existing shore power systems in the UK are small-scale and designed only for vessels with steady electrical loads. They ignore the real challenge: large cargo ships that need sudden, high-power bursts for self-discharging equipment like conveyor belts and cranes, while also powering hotel services. This project will simulate a full-scale, environmentally and economically sustainable shore-based energy storage and release system that can handle those fluctuating demands. It will also test whether such a system can operate independently of the UK’s on-demand electricity pricing structure, which is poorly suited to tidally constrained ship schedules. If successful, the work could enable aggregate dredger operators and other commercial fleets to retrofit or build vessels that plug into clean, stored power at berth. That would cut both ship emissions and upstream grid carbon costs. The system could also feed stored energy back to the UK grid when ships do not need it, turning port infrastructure into a flexible grid asset. The project is applied engineering—it aims to produce a practical demonstration and simulation tools, not fundamental science.
View original technical description
All of the existing maritime shore power supply/charging infrastructure in the UK is either relatively small capacity and/or focused on meeting the needs of vessels drawing exclusively stable loads directly from the UK electrical distribution network. The primary objective of existing systems is to satisfy an immediate decarbonisation objective; with the related cost and sustainability aspects of electrical power delivery to ships at berth deemed to be of secondary concern. The general direction of travel of a number of emerging strands of forthcoming maritime legislation at a global (IMO), regional (EU) and national (UK) level, suggests that over time, the majority of commercial cargo vessels of 400gt or more will be required to adopt decarbonisation measures of one form or another. In general terms, based on current or recently emerging technology, due to space constraints, relative cost to revenue ratios and operational aspects, decarbonisation increases in difficulty as vessel size decreases. The objective of this project is to demonstrate through developing a practical, environmentally and economically sustainable shore-based store and release electrical energy solution; capable of providing for hotel services on board using green renewable energy, and testing, via simulations, the additional requirements to meet the fluctuating electrical load demands of commercial cargo vessels operating, in addition to vessel base loads, ship mounted self-discharging cargo equipment drawing frequent high peak transient electrical loads throughout extended duration cargo operations. Additional to the technical challenges of delivering the significant and fluctuating electrical loads necessary for ship cargo operations, the simulations will address the related issues of ensuring that: (i) to meet the needs of tidally constrained ship operations, an electrical power source can be provided to vessels decoupled from the supply on demand electricity charging structure prevalent in the UK; and (ii), that an electrical power source is available to vessels from sustainable origins to ensure that both upstream decarbonisation and ship emission regulatory compliance objectives are achieved. The project simulations of a full scale system will be crucial to understanding the importance of fitting the required high capacity shore power connection equipment to future new-builds being considered by UK aggregate dredger operators as the industry continues on a fleet renewal program. Finally, as an adjunct to the primary objectives, the project will explore the potential for supply-to-grid support for the UK electrical network when available stored energy is not required for ship or wharf operations.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know