Oakland Increases Cold Ironing

By Karen Robes Meeks

Shore power use is ramping up at the Port of Oakland. About 75 percent of all vessels that arrived at the Northern California seaport in 2018 switched to landside electricity, up from 68 percent the previous year.

“Shore power is the most effective way we know to reduce vessel emissions,” said Port of Oakland Environmental Planner Catherine Mukai. “We’re pleased because the trends are positive.”

Among those leading the way are ocean carriers MSC and Hyundai Merchant Marine, which allowed for 100 percent deployment of shore power-ready ships and plugged in 165 vessels last year. Oakland International Container Terminal linked over 750 ships to shore power during the year.

“Shore power is the best way to meet the Port’s clean air goals and reduce the impact of global containerized trade on our neighbors,” said Environmental Planner Catherine Mukai, who presented awards to the three businesses at the port’s annual State of the Port address last month.

More Ships Plugging in at Oakland

By Karen Robes Meeks

The Port of Oakland recently posted its highest plug-in rate ever recorded in July when 78 percent of container ships used landside electrical power.

About 105 of 135 ships coming to Oakland plugged in at berth, a move that has significantly curbed diesel particulate exhaust.

“We’ve been working with shipping lines for a long time to accelerate the rate of shore power adoption,” said Port of Oakland Maritime Director John Driscoll. “On behalf of all of us who breathe the air in Oakland, it’s gratifying to see this level of cooperation.”

The port has been pushing for a better plug-in rate since 2012 and attributes the progress in part to investments by shipowners to modernize vessels at $1 million per ship.The goal is to reach an 85 percent plug-in rate by 2020.

Port of Oakland Completes Shoreside Power Infrastructure

Officials from the Port of Oakland, US Maritime Administration and Pacific Merchant Shipping Association and other agencies gathered Nov. 8 to mark the completion of construction of shoreside power infrastructure at the Port of Oakland.

Shore power – the shore-to-ship connection that provides electrical power to the ship, thereby significantly reducing diesel and other air pollutant emissions from ships while they are at berth – is being implemented at the Port of Oakland in a two-phase, multi-year program covering 11 berths. The port has completed construction of the new electrical infrastructure system, with final testing of the system scheduled to be complete before the end of the year.

The total cost for just the shoreside infrastructure was about $70 million, with the US Maritime Administration (MARAD) and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) contributed $12.8 million.

“The Port of Oakland’s shore power project received federal funding through a very competitive TIGER grant process because this project is recognized as creating a valuable, sustainable, green trade corridor,” MARAD Associate Administrator Keith Lesnick said.

An additional $20 million was awarded to the port by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC)/Federal Highway Administration.

In 2008, the California Air Resources Board adopted a directive to require reductions of air pollutants from ocean-going vessels. The rule, commonly referred to as the “shore power regulation,” requires that all operators of container, passenger and refrigerated cargo vessels that visit California ports more than 25 times a year employ an emission reduction system for their fleet by Jan. 1, 2014.

“In less than two months, container ships will be plugging in at California’s ports as part of an estimated $1.8 billion industry investment in shore power,” Pacific Merchant Shipping Association Vice President Mike Jacob said. “Our members are investing billions of dollars worldwide in new ocean-going vessels outfitted with the latest technology. We’ve been retrofitting hundreds of existing ships that call on California ports and installing the necessary terminal infrastructure for the 2014 transition.”

POLB Invests in Electrification Efforts

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.

APL to Cold Iron Oakland Terminal, Vessels

Shipping and logistics firm APL is teaming up with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District on an $11 million project to cut ocean-going vessel emissions near the Port of Oakland.

Nearly $5 million of the project will come from air quality grants and will go toward retrofitting the APL terminal at the Oakland port and the carrier's vessels that call there, to use dockside electric power.

Ocean-going vessels generate a large percentage of their pollution per visit while sitting idling at the dock and running generators to provide maintenance power. Dockside power, sometimes called ship-to-shore power or cold ironing, allows the vessels to plug into the shoreside power grid and shut down the on-ship generators, dramatically reducing in-port emissions.

Cold ironing their terminal and vessels at Oakland will, according to APL, cut more than 50,000 pounds of nitrogen oxide emissions– a leading component of smog– from ships berthed in Oakland and 1,500 pounds of particulate matter– often seen as smokestack soot– annually.

When completed late next year, the cold-ironing portion of the program will see APL become the first terminal and carrier at the Oakland port to cold iron.

The state of California is planning to make cold ironing of ocean-going vessels mandatory by 2014.

“Diesel emissions from port operations have a serious health impact in the West Oakland community,” said Jack Broadbent, Executive Officer of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. “APL is getting a head start to reduce emissions well before the state deadline.”

While APL will pick up the majority of the $11 million price tag, $2.8 million in grant money from the state Goods Movement Bond Program will be used to electrify berths at Global Gateway Central, the recently expanded and upgraded APL terminal at the Port of Oakland. An additional $2 million grant from the state Carl Moyer Memorial Air Quality Standards Attainment Program will be used to retrofit the first three APL container ships for cold ironing.