The APB project, soon to be implemented, to supply electricity to ships docking at the Port of Ibiza, known as OPS, does not include the most polluting vessels: cruise ships. It happens that, although these ships are the ones that generate more emissions, the infrastructure of the electrical network of Ibiza makes it unfeasible to supply cruise ships.
As La Voz de Ibiza had warned when the APB presented the call for tenders, the initiative contemplated in its statement “an infrastructure of off-shore connections for ships and cruise ships”. cruise ships“. However, the project then made no mention of the latter vessels, and was limited to ferry and fast ferry type vessels.
“As of today, the infrastructure on the islands to provide the necessary power to serve cruise ships is not feasible. It is a logistical issue,” an APB spokesman had explained.
The company that won the bid for this project is Sampol, which has not yet started the works because one of the competitors has filed an appeal with the Central Administrative Tribunal for Contractual Resources (TACRC).
When asked by La Voz de Ibiza, Pedro Andreu Llull, responsible for the project on behalf of Sampol, explains the logistical impediments referred to by the APB. “The issue of cruise ships is the power demand they have for when they are docked. By regulation, the demand for a cruise ship has to be 16 megawatts. So, if we consider a ‘normal’ port in which one, two, three, four cruise ships arrive at the same time, and that all of them want to be supplied, it is a huge power, which has to be available in the network: both by Endesa and the distribution network”.
So,” continues Andreu Llull, “if there are no substations with that power available near the port, it is unfeasible to supply the cruise ships. That is why they say from the port authority that, at least in this first instance, there is no infrastructure because there is no power”.
A possibility for the future
Sampol’s engineer believes that “surely over the years it will be put on the table” to improve the infrastructure to be able to supply cruise ships with OPS technology, the system that helps reduce emissions and that will work through two mobile containers in the South Botafoc Marsh. In fact, Andrea Llull reveals that the APB has consulted both Endesa and REE on the subject.
In any case, he admits that for this “it would be necessary to carry out works in power lines, to make extensions of new existing substations, it would have to be evaluated”. In short, “at present, with the power available around the ports of the Balearic Islands, it is not something that could come into play”.
Emissions reduction
Although it is difficult to quantify the environmental benefit of the OPS system, because it depends on the time ships spend in port and the size of the vessel, estimates indicate that the use of these containers produces 96% of nitrogen oxides, 36% of sulfur oxides, 68% of particulate matter and 45% of CO2.
But the impact on the Port of Ibiza’s total emissions will be much less significant when excluding cruise ships from the equation.
For example, according to 2019 data from the International Maritime Organization, the average amount of carbon dioxide emissions from cruise ships worldwide has been nearly 30 times greater than those generated by ferries.
