Case studies

Illustrative examples on decarbonization measures, costs and regulations

Vincent Doedee 3/12/25 Vincent Doedee 3/12/25

Business case for a Feedermax containership with a shore power battery

This case study evaluates a mobile shore power battery barge designed for a 1,730 TEU containership in the Port of Rotterdam. An average power demand of 329 kW and a peak demand of 1 MW is assumed. This results in the requirement of two 20-ft containerized batteries integrated into a Low Voltage Shore Connection (LVSC) system. Estimated savings for the ship reach €500 per 24-hour period, primarily due to reduced FuelEU compliance costs, which could exceed €600,000 over 10 years.

Vincent Doedee 1/10/25 Vincent Doedee 1/10/25

What is the average shore power demand of a container ship?

Accurate estimates of containership power demand are becoming increasingly critical due to stringent regulations, such as FuelEU Maritime, in combination with technical complexities. Ship power demand varies significantly depending on size, onboard equipment installed, and operational profile. These uncertainties places considerable pressure on terminal owners, port authorities, and developers to design and implement shore power infrastructure. This blog aims to provide guidance on this issue.

Vincent Doedee 10/23/24 Vincent Doedee 10/23/24

How to decarbonize your ship - RoRo Cargo + shore power + FuelEU

This case study determines the impact of FuelEU Maritime on a shore power refit for a RoRo Cargo ship under multiple loading and operational conditions. Pending on the amount of days connected to the grid and the average load while moored, it is estimated that shore power can save €250,000 per year.

Vincent Doedee 9/21/24 Vincent Doedee 9/21/24

Impact of FuelEU Maritime on shore power business case

This is a case study that determines the impact of FuelEU Maritime on a shore power refit business case up to 2050, taking several ships and varying input parameters to determine the impact under multiple conditions. As FuelEU Maritime will make shore power mandatory in 2030 for passenger- and containerships, this tool will help to determine the impact of that regulation on your business case.

Vincent Doedee 9/20/24 Vincent Doedee 9/20/24

How to decarbonize your ship - Feeder + Shore Power

This is a techno-economic case study that provides guidance for decarbonizing a feeder by means of a shore power refit. Shore power will be made mandatory by 2030 for these ship types as per FuelEU Maritime regulation. A step-by-step approach is given to estimate costs, analyse technical feasibility, and create a business case for the shore power refit in general.

Vincent Doedee 7/9/24 Vincent Doedee 7/9/24

Sustainovation with ICO Terminals - Lunch and Learn

How do we deal with the challenges surrounding shore power? Why is standardization so important? And what will we achieve with collaboration? Find out together with Fanni Arvai, Innovation & Sustainability Manager at International Car Operators and passionate about changing the maritime industry in a positive way with a vision for a more inclusive and environmentally conscious future.

Vincent Doedee 1/9/24 Vincent Doedee 1/9/24

Overview of Shore Power Sockets and Plugs - IEC/IEEE 80005

IEC/IEEE 80005 is the main standard for shore power. This standard categorically divides shore power plugs and sockets into low voltage shore connection systems (LVSC < 1 MVA) and high voltage shore connection systems (HVSC > 1 MVA). LVSC systems are governed by IEC/IEEE 80005-3 for operability and IEC 60309-5 for dimensions. HVSC systems are governed by IEC/IEEE 80005-1 for operability and IEC 62613-2 for dimensions.

Vincent Doedee 12/22/23 Vincent Doedee 12/22/23

Project BOEI - Lunch and Learn

On behalf of the Province of South-Holland, Sustainable Ships has been project leader of 'Project BOEI’, a techno-economic feasibility study on the electrification of tankers off the coast of Scheveningen, Netherlands. The study was performed with consortium members InnovationQuarter, Bluewater, Knutsen, EOPSA, Rijkswaterstaat, Campus@Sea, Port of Rotterdam, KVNR and Cavotec. This lunch and learn is the recording of the close-out session in which main findings were presented.

Vincent Doedee 12/21/23 Vincent Doedee 12/21/23

Project BOEI

Project BOEI is a techno-economic feasibility study on behalf of the Province of South-Holland on the electrification of tankers at the Scheveningen anchorage. The goal is to identify the most feasible technical solutions and risks, in addition to cost and emissions reduction estimation. Primary drivers are reduction of NOx and CO2 emissions. Total costs for all scopes combined is €14M (~€12M for infra and ~€2M for ship). E-anchor and subsea cabling are approximately 50% of all cost. Break-even price parity for shipowner and provider of power is at around €0.20-€0.25 per kWh.

Vincent Doedee 11/1/23 Vincent Doedee 11/1/23

Mobilyze Renewable Energy Units (HBEs) with Robert Gunsing

Renewable Energy Units - Hernieuwbare Brandstof Eenheden - are a Dutch system of certificates based on the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED). Under the system, parties that produce liquid fossil fuels for transport have an obligation from the government to purchase REUs. Per year, €1 billion REUs are traded in the Netherlands. You can earn between 4.5 and 18 eurocents per kWh ‘sold’ to a vessel, for example when using shore power.

Vincent Doedee 9/3/23 Vincent Doedee 9/3/23

MoU for North Star Support Vessels on Offshore Wind

Maersk’s Stillstrom and North Star have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to accelerate the adoption of offshore charging and vessel electrification technologies for Offshore Support Vessels (OSVs) in the offshore wind sector. Offshore charging hubs will enable the vessels to recharge their battery systems using wind energy while in the field.

Vincent Doedee 8/11/23 Vincent Doedee 8/11/23

How to decarbonize your ship - Large Fishing Trawler

This is a case study on how to decarbonize a fishing trawler - the Jacobus Maria - using shore power, battery hybrid EES and biofuels. 20% CO2 reduction is achieved, half of which stems from the use of biofuels (HVO). The hybrid battery pack is economically not feasible with the assumptions used and the operational profile. The Jacobus Maria has 1 MW installed engine capacity. Total cost would be at least €1M. 10% CO2 reduction can be achieved with approx. €50k.

Vincent Doedee 6/10/23 Vincent Doedee 6/10/23

BAM Amsterdam Cruise Terminal with Dick and Rick

On May 10th, Port of Amsterdam awarded the contract for the realization of shore power at Cruise Port Amsterdam (CPA) to Powercon A/S and with BAM as subcontractor. Dick van Veen and Rick van Akkeren - BAM Business Unit Heavy Duty Charging - explain in detail about the project and the challenges that they are facing. Building the infrastructure that can host large cruise vessels and support the heavy electrical equipment is therefore a daunting task, all of which is discussed in this video.

Vincent Doedee 4/3/23 Vincent Doedee 4/3/23

EOPSA - Digital 4 Port Decarbonisation with GE

Watch this lunch and learn by EOPSA together with General Electric, in which we discuss the onshore and vessel aspects of shore power, including microgrids and using the Decarbonizer to determine the costs for shore power for your vessel.

Vincent Doedee 12/7/22 Vincent Doedee 12/7/22

Shore-Link with Levan Chikviladze

Ports are the start and end of every vessel’s journey. Because of this, onshore power supply undeniably plays a big part of the decarbonization of the maritime industry. Creating a network of onshore power supply in ports around the world is a tremendous but necessary task. One of the companies providing the technology for this transition is ShoreLink. Watch this lunch and learn by Shorelink, presented by Levan Chikviladze, to learn more.

Vincent Doedee 11/1/22 Vincent Doedee 11/1/22

EOPSA with Roland Teixeira de Mattos

Watch this lunch and learn with EOPSA Founding President Roland Teixeira de Mattos, who will tell all about EOPSA, its growth, its advocacy, its outlook and the broader topic of Port Energy.

Vincent Doedee 10/7/22 Vincent Doedee 10/7/22

Overview of Shore Power Sockets and Plugs - 1

This blog provides an overview of (European/Dutch) shore power sockets and plugs. They are categorized into three groups, depending on a ship’s installed power: below 100 kW, below 2.000 kW and above 2.000 kW. Especially below 100 kW, there is great diversification of plugs which would merit the creation of a ‘universal adapter’ for ships. Share your experience to help other shipowners.

Vincent Doedee 12/10/20 Vincent Doedee 12/10/20

Shore Power by Heerema

This is a story about how the shore power connection for Heerema in the Port of Rotterdam was realized from idea to reality. It is told from the perspective of Heerema, but could not be realized without help from Eneco, Siemens, Port of Rotterdam, the City Council of Rotterdam and InnovationQuarter. This story portrays the power of open collaboration for a sustainable future, and shows what can be achieved when working together on a common cause.

Vincent Doedee 9/5/23 Vincent Doedee 9/5/23

COSCO 700 TEU Full Electric Container Ship

The N997 has two propulsion motors with a capacity of 900 [kW] each and a total battery capacity of 50 [MWh] - best estimate currently available. The 120 meter long ship has a fully electric drive, can carry up to 700 TEU and is able to swap battery packs en route. The vessel is designed for Chinese inland and coastal waters, covering over 600 nautical miles of routes on the Yangtze River.

Vincent Doedee 7/7/23 Vincent Doedee 7/7/23

Inside a Battery Container

The Corvus BOB (Battery On Board) is a standardized, class-approved, modular battery room solution available in 10-foot and 20-foot ISO high-cube container sizes. The complete system comes with battery, monitoring system, HVAC , TR exhaust, plus firefighting and detection system. The plug and play battery room simplifies integration into any system integrator’s power management system on board a ship. The battery cells have passive thermal runaway protection, and are type-approved according to DNV.

Vincent Doedee 6/10/23 Vincent Doedee 6/10/23

Maritime Battery Forum with Syb ten Cate Hoedemaker

During the lunch and learn, current forum Director Syb ten Cate Hoedemaker will exchange knowledge and experience from the usage of batteries within the shipping and offshore industries. You will learn which batteries will suit your vessel, plus discover the costs and payback for different operational modes. Which battery suits your vessel, your needs, your operational profile? This is the key question discussed in this lunch and learn with Maritime Battery Forum.

Vincent Doedee 5/18/23 Vincent Doedee 5/18/23

How to decarbonize your ship - Full Electric Tugboat

This is a case study on how to decarbonize a tug by making it full electric. It is an homage to Damen’s electric tug ‘Sparky’. In practice, fully electrifying a vessel means to install a - very large - battery pack, in this case at least 3 MWh. This would also be the largest cost component, outweighing switchboard modifications, inverter and other electrical equipment. Cost reductions in OPEX/dayrate are high, between 50% to 90% in extreme cases.

Vincent Doedee 5/18/23 Vincent Doedee 5/18/23

Damen’s Sparky - their first full electric tug

Damen’s first all-electric harbour tug, the RSD-E Tug 2513, is a high-powered tug with 70-tonnes bollard pull, capable of manoeuvring even the largest vessels. It can undertake two or more assignments before being recharged, which takes just two hours. The battery pack size is 2,800 kWh, resulting an approximately 1,400 kW of charging power required. The battery pack is design for the vessel’s 30 year lifetime.

Vincent Doedee 11/8/21 Vincent Doedee 11/8/21

Inside The World's First Electric Cargo Ship - Yara Birkeland

Dubbed ‘the Tesla of the seas’ this fully-electrified, fully-autonomous cargo ship is already making waves. The Yara Birkeland has a 7MWh battery, charged by Norwegian hydro power. She can carry a little over 100 containers. The ship cost about 25 million dollars, about three times a “conventional ship price”, but will nonetheless cut OPEX for Yara by 90%.

Vincent Doedee 4/27/21 Vincent Doedee 4/27/21

Get Ready for the Alfa Lift, an Electric-Hybrid Heavy Lift Crane Vessel

The Alfa Lift, a new build heavy lift crane vessel owned by Offshore Heavy Transport, is on track to enter service by early 2022. The vessel features a 3,000 ton main crane, 10,000+ m² smart deck which can be fully submerged to a depth of 15 meters and a electric-hybrid battery system made by Kongsberg.

Vincent Doedee 3/9/21 Vincent Doedee 3/9/21

Wärtsilä 54 MW Power Barge

In 2020, Wärtsilä was awared a combined contract by Therma Marine Inc. (TMI) for a barge-mounted 54 MW / 32 MWh energy storage system. The power barge consists of ten Wärtsilä GridSolv Max systems, supported by the the GEMS energy management platform. Total costs of this power barge are estimated at €16M for the battery packs plus €8.1M for the power equipment excluding engineering and installation.

Vincent Doedee 10/3/20 Vincent Doedee 10/3/20

Making the Impossible Possible

This blog sketches a vision on how to convert the largest crane vessel in the world - Sleipnir - owned by Heerema Marine Contractors, to a zero-emission vessel. Several promising carbon reduction measures are combined which are technically viable and based on matured technology including electrification and BES, solar panels, synthetic fuels, CCS and possibly hydrogen combustion.

Vincent Doedee 9/29/20 Vincent Doedee 9/29/20

Ørsted and Maersk to Test Offshore Vessel Charger

Maersk and Ørsted are building a ‘power-buoy’ that can act as both a mooring point and a charging station for vessels, enabling them to turn of their engines when laying idle.

Vincent Doedee 9/13/19 Vincent Doedee 9/13/19

LFP Battery Fire Hazard by FM Global

This video shows the potential fire hazard of an 83 kWh Energy Storage System comprised of Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries. The ESS had an overall electrical capacity of 83 kWh and ≥ 95% state-of-charge. No protection systems were active. Three heaters plus a propane pilot flame were installed to ensure vent gas ignition (!). The results from this test may not be representative of other LFP based systems.