On August 14, next to the berth of No. 9 Pier in Yichang, Hubei Province, electric workers slowly put down the cables and clicked on the shore power intelligent control cabinet. The cruise ship "Yangtze Three Gorges 10" immediately connected to the shore power, and the roaring diesel generators slowly Disappear slowly.

The so-called shore power, simply put, is the power on land at the port terminal. Shore power is connected to docked ships through special equipment, causing them to stop fuel-fired auxiliary engines to generate electricity, achieving "zero fuel consumption, zero emissions, and zero noise."

As the most promising technology for energy conservation and emission reduction in the port and shipping field, shore power is an important part of green port construction. The use of shore power by ships docking at the port can effectively reduce air pollutant emissions. In addition, using shore power can reduce noise and energy consumption, which has good environmental and economic benefits. What results have been achieved in the promotion of shore power in my country? What problems still need to be solved?

Can significantly reduce pollutant emissions

On April 1, 2015, the shore power pilot project at the Shawan Anchorage in Yichang, Hubei Province in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area sent power. This is the first batch of shore power equipment in the Yangtze River. "By using the shore power system, shore power can be safely and efficiently delivered to ships, meeting the power needs of electrical equipment such as production operations and living facilities on board, and greatly reducing pollutant emissions." Shore power operation and maintenance services of State Grid Yichang Power Supply Company Personnel Li Xingheng said.

As the location of the Three Gorges Dam and Gezhouba Dam, nearly 60,000 ships wait and pass through the locks in Yichang every year. The prevention and control of ship pollution has become a must-answer issue. In June 2018, State Grid Corporation of China, together with the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Finance, National Energy Administration, Hubei Provincial People\'s Government, Three Gorges Group, etc., established a collaborative working mechanism for government and enterprise cooperation, focusing on the construction of the shore power experimental zone in the Three Gorges Dam area, and promoting the development of the Yangtze River Basin Shore power facilities are fully covered. In April 2019, the shore power experimental zone in the Three Gorges Dam area was completed. Shore power construction has covered 63 operating wharves, 2 anchorages, and 165 sets of shore power piles in the Yichang River Section, with a shore power supply capacity of 25,200 kVA. As of the end of May, Yichang shore power has provided more than 16,000 ships with more than 26 million kilowatt hours of clean energy, 6,190 tons of alternative fuel, and reduced carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 20,000 tons, which is equivalent to the annual emissions of 8,000 to 10,000 cars. Save more than 30 million yuan in energy costs for ships.

According to data released by the Yangtze River Navigation Administration of Transport (hereinafter referred to as the Changjiang Navigation Administration), since this year, the use of shore power by ships in the Yangtze River Economic Belt has increased significantly. From January to June this year, ships from 11 provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt used shore power for a total of 432,555 times, and the electricity consumption reached 51,182,359 kilowatt hours, a year-on-year increase of 40% and 63% respectively.

The increase in shore power usage in the Yangtze River Economic Belt reflects my country’s efforts in recent years to promote clean shore power.

In August 2017, the Ministry of Transport issued the "Port Shore Power Layout Plan", proposing that by 2020, more than 50% of the built container, ro-ro, cruise, and passenger transport of more than 3,000 tons in the country\'s major ports and ports in the ship emission control area will be achieved And the construction goal of specialized berths for dry bulk cargo above 50,000 tons to have the ability to supply shore power to ships. Entering the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, relevant departments have successively issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Establishment and Improvement of a Green, Low-carbon and Circular Development Economic System", "Opinions on Completely, Accurately and Comprehensively Implementing the New Development Concept and Doing a Good job in Carbon Neutrality" and " Documents such as the Carbon Peak Action Plan before 2030 comprehensively promote the normalization of the use of shore power.

Improving laws and regulations to increase usage

Although the promotion of shore power has been successful in some areas of my country, overall, my country still has problems such as more shore power facilities being built and less used, and shipside shore power modification rate being low, which restricts the use of shore power.

Peng Chuansheng, chief researcher of the Water Transport Science Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport, believes that since my country has been committed to promoting the use of shore power for ships calling ports in 2010, the current construction of port shore power supply systems has achieved remarkable results. The transformation of ship power receiving systems, especially the registration of provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, The transformation of the ship\'s power receiving system is also proceeding as planned. However, from a nationwide perspective, the efficiency of the existing port shore power supply system is extremely low. The reasons are that shipping companies invest heavily and there are few ships with the ability to receive shore power; there is a lack of incentives and captains are not very motivated; there are no specific requirements in existing laws and supervision It is difficult to get it in place; international sailing ships do not meet the requirements for shore power reception. To this end, it is necessary to prescribe the right medicine to solve the problem. It is recommended to further improve the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law and the Marine Environmental Protection Law, and clarify the responsibilities of ships calling ports for using shore power.

Ke Xuejie, a senior engineer at the Science and Technology Center of China Classification Society Quality Certification Company, believes that there are some problems with the current use of shore power on the ship side. First, the ship is afraid that the shore power will be unstable and harm the ship\'s power supply equipment. At the same time, if the ship uses shore power, it needs to deploy full-time personnel during the use of shore power, which to a certain extent raises the threshold for using shore power. In addition, ships believe that the cost of using shore power is relatively higher, which is one of the reasons why ships are less enthusiastic about using shore power. Regarding how to promote the use of shore power on the ship side, he suggested starting from improving the legal system and improving the comprehensive binding force on the use of shore power from the source. In addition to efforts at the institutional level, we can also innovate the reward system and use incentives to increase the enthusiasm of ship owners. In order to increase the utilization rate of ship shore power and ensure the standard use, publicity, implementation and daily supervision and inspection of the use of ship shore power should also be strengthened. (Science and Technology Daily reporter Wu Chunxin, correspondent Fang Lingwan)