Abstract
Anticipating tighter harbour emissions controls and the development of Renewable Energy Sources (RES), PLUG, acronym for Power Generation during Loading and Unloading, is a joint research and development effort supported by the European Commission to develop an innovative, high capacity (up to 25 MW), ship to shore electric power interface for the new generation of DFDE LNGCs. This interface will allow to connect the vessel to the local electric power grid during harbour operations in order to:- Import power from the grid for hotel and cargo pumps loads (“cold ironing”) to avoid local emissions penalties.- Run the ship’s diesel generating plant at full capacity and sell power to the grid, while acting as a low emission “shadow” power backup for RES projects.The project objective is not only to develop and qualify safe and user friendly operations for power transfer, but, as well, to provide an effective software “link to the market” to enable an efficient and speedy (real time: less than 15 minutes) decision making between the different stake holders (crew, ship owners, charterers, port and state authorities…) to either export or import (cold ironing *) power between the vessel and the shore.The paper presents the status of this two-year project initiated in 2006, such as proposed connector and power line technologies, proposed on board and harbour implementation strategies and trade offs, as well as the prospects of the first full size demonstration test in 2008.
