MSE International has been awarded funding from the Department of Transport (DfT), Transport Research and Innovation Grant (TRIG) 2022 which is delivered in partnership with Connected Places Catapult.

The funding will be used to assess the optimum port battery storage options for various port use cases in order to facilitate the decarbonisation of vessels for 2030.

The need for a cost-effective shore power solution in ports has become urgent; vessel operators are developing electric and hybrid vessels that will demand significant power provision at berth, for hotel load and/or recharging of on-board batteries. Direct connection to the port’s DNO sub-station would often incur significant grid-reinforcement costs and expose the port (and vessel operator) to potentially very high energy costs at times when wholesale prices are high. Energy storage in port would avoid these problems by time-shifting heavy loads to times of excess generation and low price.

However, it remains unclear what kind of in-port battery storage should be installed and what is the optimal storage capacity needed to maximise return on investment.  The ESSOP project aims to address this challenge by assessing candidate battery storage options and modelling how preferred solutions could perform under several use-cases that reflect real operational needs. This will help ports to make informed judgements about the options available for deployment before 2030.

ESSOP will build a model to assist selection of energy storage facilities which will allow ports to supply shore power to vessels.  This builds on the previous ModOPS project which concluded that electricity storage in ports would be the most cost-effective route to shore power provision.  The ESSOP project will model round trip system efficiency and through-life costs for different battery types and capacities, under three use cases representative of shore power requirements.  This will help ports to make informed judgements about the options available for deployment before 2030.

To be kept informed of the ESSOP project and other relevant projects, events and activities sign up to the MSE Maritime Decarbonisation Interest Group here and the MSE email newsletter here.