The Port of Long Beach, its terminal
customers and shipping lines are investing millions of dollars in new equipment
to allow vessels to use clean electricity at berth and cut air pollution in
advance of upcoming state deadlines, officials said May 6 during a special
“Shore Power Summit.”
The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners
hosted the summit at the port to highlight the industry’s efforts to meet the
shore power requirement. The summit brought together environmental regulators,
seaport terminal operators, elected officials and utility representatives to
discuss the wide array of investments and other preparations.
Long Beach says it’s completing $100 million
worth of dockside power hookups, vessel operators are retrofitting older ships
for shore power and building new ones, and Southern California Edison is
installing a new transmission system to meet the increased power demand. The
preparations are being made as California’s shore power deadline approaches: by
Jan. 1, 2014, vessel operators must plug in half of all cargo container, cruise
and reefer vessels and eliminate half of their emissions.
The shore power regulation came about thanks in
part to the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles crafting their 2006 joint San
Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan. Before the state regulation was created,
the ports’ CAAP established a goal to use shore power at container terminals.
Several Port of Long Beach terminals are already equipped with shore power.
Shoreside power can cut air pollution from
ships at berth by 95 percent when ships use such power for their power needs at
berth – lights, pumps, communications and refrigeration – instead of running
diesel-fueled auxiliary engines.
