Shore power for short sea vessels in the Port of Amsterdam

On 8 and 9 February, the first test took place with shore power for short sea vessels at a terminal. Shipping company Wilson moored their ship Wilson Goole at VCK Logistics' Waterland Terminal. The ship received power via SKOON's battery.

Battery test
The battery test is another step towards a more sustainable shipping industry. The battery can supply green energy anywhere in Amsterdam and is then filled with local wind energy from Windpark Ruigoord or with energy from biomass from AEB. With this, it is capable of supplying 630 kWh of electricity. This equates to at least twelve hours of shore power. Or two months for a two-person household.

The test shows that it is possible to provide large ships with energy on a regular basis by means of a battery. On locations with a small grid connection, up to 550 kW of peak power can be supplied for longer periods. This has recently been done in cooperation with the Shared Energy Platform(link is external) (SEP). SEP is an initiative of the Port of Amsterdam to increase the available capacity in the electricity grid.

Adaptations to ships for shore power
It is not easy to connect these large vessels to shore power. This requires certain modifications to the ships. Wilson Eurocarriers sails to Amsterdam on a weekly basis and has already made modifications to 80 of its 126 ships. Robert Bravenboer, Director at Wilson Agency: "We think it is important to make optimal use of the possibilities of shore power. Hopefully this will soon become the standard in all ports. We believe that the sustainability of ports will increase rapidly and we are happy to contribute to this. We are very happy that we were able to do this pilot in Amsterdam'.

Innovation and sustainability at the terminals
VCK is also enthusiastic about the pilot. Peter Loonen, Managing Director of VCK Group: "We value the importance of innovation and sustainability. The battery test is a nice concrete example of this. It's important to us that we continue to invest in the future to ensure that we can provide more of these types of ships with energy in a sustainable way’’.

Making the port even more sustainable
Clean shipping is an important spearhead in the 2021 - 2025 strategy of the Port of Amsterdam. One concrete example of how we are working towards this is the provision of shore power at locations within the ‘ring’ road. This is already possible for inland navigation and river cruise ships. We now want to expand this further for a wide range of vessels at the various terminals.