The merits of offshore electrical power bunkering

The company will lead the 36-month, €11 million-euro project and will support the consortium in safety, classification and regulatory compliance.

“ABS is supporting cutting-edge electrification projects around the world for shipowners, shipyards and other stakeholders. We are well-positioned to use our deep industry knowledge to advance electrification and power connection technologies and to understand the risks as vessels and infrastructure become increasingly electrified and connected,” said Konstantinos Voutzoulidis, business development manager, ABS.

Better connected

The BlueBARGE project aims to play a key role in the transformation of the maritime port sector towards the goals of electrification and decarbonisation, at both European and international level.

The barge will limit polluting emissions following a modular, scalable, adaptable and flexible design approach that will facilitate its commercialisation by 2030.

It will also address the issues of power supply integration, interconnection of the barge with ships, the port and the local power grid, as well as operational safety and regulatory compliance. 

Among its main advantages is the speed with which it can be deployed in different locations as required. This reduces the need for time-consuming and costly infrastructure upgrades, especially in ports and harbour anchorage areas.

It will also be able to supply power to vessels moored in spaces where OPS infrastructure deployment is limited or unavailable. In this way, it will be able to ensure the supply of energy in areas of difficult access where the supply from the port’s electricity grid is limited.

Fundación Valenciaport is contributing its experience in port operations, risk assessment of the use of alternative fuels and the implementation of OPS systems to the project

The project, funded by the Horizon Europe program, involves 14 partners from ten European countries.