Barcelona, Spain (Ports Europe) July 15, 2024 – The Port of Barcelona has inaugurated its first Onshore Power Supply (OPS-cold ironing) system at the Hutchison Ports BEST container terminal. The system will provide 100% renewable electricity to ships, allowing them to shut down their engines while in the Port of Barcelona, reducing emissions.
The OPS is the first to be implemented as part of the Nexigen Plan, a 200 million euro investment that will enable the electrification of all the docks in the Port of Barcelona and reduce emissions from port activities.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by the President of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Pere Aragonès; the Regional Minister, Ester Capella; the Secretary General for Air and Maritime Transport at the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Benito Núñez; the Mayor of Prat del Llobregat, Lluís Mijoler; the First Deputy Mayor of Barcelona City Council, Laia Bonet; the President of Puertos del Estado, Álvaro Rodríguez Dapena; and the President of the Port of Barcelona, Lluís Salvadó. The event was also attended by the Managing Director of Hutchison Port Holdings Europe and President of the Hutchison Group Sustainability Committee, Clemence Cheng, and the CEO of Hutchison Ports BEST, Guillermo Belcastro, among others.
Management comment
The President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, said: “is a fundamental project for the future of the country”, adding that “with the inauguration of the first ship loading point in a container terminal, we are once again demonstrating Catalonia’s leadership in Europe and the Mediterranean”.
Laia Bonet, first deputy mayor of the city of Barcelona, added: “In Barcelona, we have committed ourselves to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030. The challenge is enormous and we all have to take responsibility and do everything we can to reduce emissions”. “This OPS scheme is a very good example of what happens when the goal is clear and shared. Today’s news is historic. And for this very reason it cannot remain an anecdote, Barcelona must be the port with the most terminals with these characteristics,” she added.
The CEO of Hutchison Port Holdings Europe and Chairman of the Sustainability Committee of the Hutchison Group, Clemence Cheng, stressed that “the OPS represents a very important step towards our commitment to reduce BEST’s carbon footprint by 80% by 2030 and to become a carbon neutral terminal in terms of its operations by 2040, a vision that is now even closer to reality with the official certification of our carbon footprint”. “In 2022, BEST has already achieved a 57% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from operations compared to the previous year,” he added.
“The first OPS in a container terminal in the Mediterranean shows the commitment and efforts that the Port of Barcelona is making to decarbonise port activities and improve air quality in the fight against climate change,” said the president of the Port of Barcelona, Lluís Salvadó. “This is a big step, the first in the journey we have started with the Nexigen Plan, which will allow us to move towards a more sustainable future.”
Equipment
The construction of the OPS involved the installation of a medium-voltage network with 3,000 metres of cable to the edge of the quay, where three junction boxes were installed, specially designed to be compatible with the terminal’s operations. These connection points, combined with the capacity of the OPS to supply up to 8 MW of power, allow two vessels to be connected simultaneously.
The new OPS system was manufactured in Denmark by PowerCon to meet the specific needs of the Port of Barcelona.
During the first two years of the OPS pilot phase, approximately 92 connections will be made. This will save 2,500 tonnes of CO2 per year. From the third year, the plan is to gradually increase the number of annual connections, with a corresponding increase in emissions reductions.
At a cost of almost 5 million euros, BEST’s OPS was partly funded by the Sustainable and Digital Transport Support Programme of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
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