Is Shore Side Electricity greener? An environmental analysis and policy implications

Abstract

As the shipping industry contributes a certain part of global CO2 emissions, various endeavors have been applied to reduce emissions from the sea transport sector. Shore Side Electricity (SSE) is a land-to-vessel electricity connection that allows vessels to switch off Auxiliary Engines (AE) when hoteling at berth. SSE has been suggested and implemented in many ports to reduce the CO2, CO, NOx and SO2 emissions generated by AEs while docked. However, delays may occur due to the insufficiency of SSE infrastructure and disorders in some ports. Containerships have to accelerate to catch up with the schedule. The acceleration would cause an over-emission of CO2 and this would offset the reduction achieved by SSE. This paper quantifies the environmental potential of SSE and the impacts of SSE related delays on CO2 emission reduction in 2 scenarios and 2 cases of difference vessel size. The results show that containerships staying at berth could only bear a very short delay due to the limitation of electricity generation efficiency, and SSE caused delays account more in CO2 over-emission for larger vessels than smaller ones. Furthermore, policy recommendations on technical, operational and managerial aspects are proposed to promote the implementation of SSE.