The Port of Barcelona and Denmark's PowerCon A/S have started building the pilot project to provide electrical power to ships at the BEST terminal. The company has been awarded the contract for this project, which is part of Phase Zero of the Wharf Electrification Plan developed by the Port of Barcelona and includes the drafting and performance of the project as well as the ships' connection and disconnection service and the maintenance of the installation. The contract has been awarded for €4,978,640.
The first meeting was held last week between the Port of Barcelona team that heads the pilot project (Ana Arévalo, Energy Transition Manager; Gemma Peñalver, Site Manager, and José Manuel Hernández, electrical engineer) and the team from PowerCon A/S, led by Peter Castberg Knudsen, Team Manager and founding partner of PowerCon; Soren Munch, Site Manager, and Javier San Miguel, coordinator.
During the meeting, the Port of Barcelona and PowerCon teams established the ground rules for the performance of the construction project in accordance with the tender and visited the Hutchison Ports BEST terminal to inspect the facilities where the electrification equipment will be located. Ana Arévalo stated "we hope to have the construction project approved in six months, at most, so that we can start the building work".
With a planned overall investment of nearly €110 million, the Wharf Electrification Plan is among projects promoted by the Port of Barcelona to halve CO2 emissions from port operations by 2030 and become a carbon neutral port by 2050. This plan, known as Nexigen, will make it possible to connect ships to the general electricity grid while they are berthed, using clean energy that is generated at the Port itself or that is certified 100% renewable.
The Port of Barcelona Dock Electrification Plan is fully aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and one of the keys to its success lies in connecting the Port directly to the high-capacity electricity grid to respond to expected demand for electricity from ships.
