Deendayal Port becomes 2nd Major Port to have shore to ship power facility

GANDHIDHAM: Deendayal Port will now become the second Major Port in India to have shore-to-ship power facility.

The facility would mean that not all the ships coming to the port will have to run their electricity from diesel generators.

“In line with international conventions and the Government's initiative to reduce pollution from marine sources, the port has invited tenders for installing power supply arrangements to ships calling at the port when they are alongside berth. The project will have 1 megawatt capacity and cater to four ships at a time for their lighting loads,” said Shri Ravi Parmar, Chairman of Deendayal Port Trust.

The facility is expected that emissions or usage of fossil fuel will reduce by 100 litre per hour for the vessels berthed at the port, which translates to approximately 12 kilolitre per ship for a port stay of five days.

Even the tugs being used at the port will have shore-to-ship power facility at a separate area within the port. “When the tugs are not attending to the ships, they are berthed alongside port craft jetty, when they run their generators to meet the electricity requirements. The port has made arrangement to provide electricity from shore-based installation to the tugs, both at Vadinar and at Kandla, which results in an estimated reduction in consumption to the tune of approximately 1,000 litres per day, that is 365 kl per annum,” according to shipping sources.

A year ago, V.O. Chidambaranar Port had commissioned shore-to-ship power. Other Major Ports of India are yet to catch up on the feature to be part of the 'Project Green Port'.

Deendayal Port Trust will also have a wind power plant under the 'Project Green Port' initiative of Ministry of Shipping. The port already has captive 6 mw wind power project installed, which was commissioned in March and has the capacity to generate 1.45 crore units annually.

Now, it plans to come up with another 14 mw of wind power for a period of next 20 years. The estimated annual energy production from this project will be around 40 million units per year and likely to be commissioned by March.

Source: Dailyshippingtimes.com