The Community of European Shipyards Associations (CESA) sparked debate at the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Marine Environment Protection Committee’s (MEPC) 69th session by proposing that the international (IEC) standard for shore power connection should be mandated solely to those who choose to install shore power on their ships/ports, rather than proposing a mandatory carriage requirement.
They emphasised that it should not be mandatory to have this connection, but if the port or the ship is to facilitate shore power, then it should be mandatory to do so using the international standard in order to facilitate compatibility for low emission operations.
CESA acknowledged in their submission that it has previously been difficult to implement the international standard for newbuild vessels and ports due to technical and market barriers, however, the submission has been made in light of these barriers being eradicated.
The majority of Member States agreed that the IMO should require ports and newbuild ships to use this standardised design, but some had reservations with amending the text and there was emphasis from Panama on making sure that if this happens then the shore power needs to come from a renewable energy source.
The Bahamas showed some support for the idea, however, they suggested it was more of a safety issue for SOLAS rather than MEPC as it is more related to safety rather than to emissions due to the modifications that need to be made to ships and ports. They suggested that a proposal should be made to SOLAS and that following this they would then officially support it.
Sweden also supported these amendments and the use of onshore power supply for the purpose of mitigating air pollution and improving human health. Sweden drew upon theirs and Germany’s previous submission during MEPC 55 for a similar proposal but stated that previous technical issues created barriers. Today, these have been removed and so Sweden claimed that “it is now appropriate to permit the use of their (CESA’s) international standard” and supports the discussions to implement this standardisation.
France and Russia also supported the proposal to improve air quality, but Russia raised concerns regarding avoiding mandatory nature at the initial stage. They spoke of the importance in making sure that shore power connection does not become mandatory at this time as this may create difficulties for ships and ports at the current time.
They suggested to the committee that they should also consider the possibility of reaching out to current ports to ask them to consider how accessible the equipment is on shore to help understanding of the situation. Additionally, Malta indicated some concern, suggesting that mandatory aspects of implementing such methods needs to be considered as some ports may face problems if the shore power is not able to be provided by renewables.
At this stage it was decided that the comments should be noted but those interested to further the proposal will need to submit a proposal to MEPC or SOLAS for a new output in order for this to be considered at this stage.
The official proposal made by CESA read as follows:
5/8 Promoting the use of onshore power supply CESA
The European shipyards’ associations propose a requirement for ships to be fitted with a standard connection for on-shore power supply and for ports and terminals to be required to make use of the available international standard.
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