LoCOPS | Low Cost Onshore Power Supply (LoCOPS)

Summary
The main objective of this project is to supply and demonstrate a competitive shore power supply also called Onshore Power
Supply (OPS) related to providing electricity for cruise ships when docked in port. OPS installations saves consumption of
fuel and eliminates the air pollution associated with the use of fuel. Many European cities are planning urban growth in areas
near ports and are frequently discussing ways of encouraging ships to use OPS to meet clean air objectives.
Electricity supply in Europe has a frequency of 50 Hz but most cruise ships and other large vessels are designed for 60Hz.
Thus, in European ports electricity has to be converted to 60 Hz by a quayside electricity converter. The cost of frequency
converter grows proportionally with power consumption and thus for cruise ships holds a considerable part of the OPS
investment. So far, ports in Europe have been restraint from investing in OPS installations of this type and size due to very
high equipment cost.
The high equipment cost is seen as a consequence of a new market with very limited capable suppliers causing a high
bargaining power in the favor of the selling part. Comparable trends were seen within the Wind power segment in the past
but the wind turbines everlasting competition towards fossil fuels has kept focus on lowering cost of all parts of the turbines
with great success.
PowerCon has for the last 5-6 years been a part of this success by adding significant savings into the industry with beyond
state of the art converter solutions at low cost. These solutions are in many aspects identical with the required for OPS,
making it obviously to offer the same savings into the maritime sector, ensuring a reasonable return of investment for the
ports and for the benefit of the environment.
The ambition of this project is to offer the ports the first time competitive OPS solution when comparing price on shore side
electricity with the alternative from the ships auxiliary engines.
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More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/711235
Start date: 01-12-2015
End date: 31-05-2016
Total budget - Public funding: 71 429,00 Euro - 50 000,00 Euro
Cordis data

Original description

The main objective of this project is to supply and demonstrate a competitive shore power supply also called Onshore Power
Supply (OPS) related to providing electricity for cruise ships when docked in port. OPS installations saves consumption of
fuel and eliminates the air pollution associated with the use of fuel. Many European cities are planning urban growth in areas
near ports and are frequently discussing ways of encouraging ships to use OPS to meet clean air objectives.
Electricity supply in Europe has a frequency of 50 Hz but most cruise ships and other large vessels are designed for 60Hz.
Thus, in European ports electricity has to be converted to 60 Hz by a quayside electricity converter. The cost of frequency
converter grows proportionally with power consumption and thus for cruise ships holds a considerable part of the OPS
investment. So far, ports in Europe have been restraint from investing in OPS installations of this type and size due to very
high equipment cost.
The high equipment cost is seen as a consequence of a new market with very limited capable suppliers causing a high
bargaining power in the favor of the selling part. Comparable trends were seen within the Wind power segment in the past
but the wind turbines everlasting competition towards fossil fuels has kept focus on lowering cost of all parts of the turbines
with great success.
PowerCon has for the last 5-6 years been a part of this success by adding significant savings into the industry with beyond
state of the art converter solutions at low cost. These solutions are in many aspects identical with the required for OPS,
making it obviously to offer the same savings into the maritime sector, ensuring a reasonable return of investment for the
ports and for the benefit of the environment.
The ambition of this project is to offer the ports the first time competitive OPS solution when comparing price on shore side
electricity with the alternative from the ships auxiliary engines.

Status

CLOSED

Call topic

IT-1-2015-1

Update Date

27-10-2022
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Horizon 2020
H2020-EU.2. INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP
H2020-EU.2.3. INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
H2020-EU.2.3.1. Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument
H2020-SMEINST-1-2015
IT-1-2015-1 Small business innovation research for Transport
H2020-EU.3. SOCIETAL CHALLENGES
H2020-EU.3.4. SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport
H2020-EU.3.4.0. Cross-cutting call topics
H2020-SMEINST-1-2015
IT-1-2015-1 Small business innovation research for Transport