Stena Line plugs in to shoreside power at another Swedish port

OCTOBER 25, 2017 — Ferry giant Stena Line is now connecting up its two vessels M/S Skåne and M/S Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to the electricity grid during calls at the Port of Trelleborg, Sweden.

Stena Line says this is an important step in its sustainability efforts, where a focus area is to reduce emissions into the atmosphere.

At present four of Stena Line’s six ports in Sweden now provide shoreside power connections to the local electricity grid. Throughout Stena Line’s route network, 17 percent of the ports now provide shoreside power connections.

“We are delighted to have completed yet another onshore power supply connection together with the Port of Trelleborg,” says Stena Line’s CEO Niclas Mårtensson. “Sustainability is one of the cornerstones of our strategy and this is an important contribution to our efforts by reducing emissions and cutting down on noise in port. On many of our ferry routes our vessels call at locations close to cities and this makes it especially important to be able to shut off the engines when docked. Planning work is under way to enable us to connect vessels in more of our ports. The objective is for 25 per cent of the ports we use to have an electrical connection by 2020 and 75 per cent by 2030.”

At the ports where Stena Line has an onshore power supply vessels connect up to the electricity grid when docked for more than two hours. Stena Line’s vessels in Trelleborg are docked for more than two hours 10 times out of 16 per week and will connect up to the electricity grid at these times.

The connection means that the machinery on board is completely shut down, bringing emissions down to practically zero, maximum total environmental gain comes when green electricity is used, as is the case in Trelleborg.

Installation of electrical connections is a major investment, with the port generally paying for the onshore installation and the shipping company paying for onboard installation. The onshore equipment is protected against overload for a nominal load of 2.2 MW, which is equivalent to heating around 80 apartment blocks.

“It’s really great that Stena Line has decided to connect two of its vessels to the onshore power supply at the Port of Trelleborg” says Port of Trelleborg CEO Jörgen Nilsson.

The Port of Trelleborg received a grant from the EU for the investment, which will reduce both emissions and noise from docked vessels,