Technical-economical analysis of cold-ironing. Case study of Venice cruise terminal

Cold-ironing is the practice that enables to power commercial ships by a link to fixed electricity network, in order to reduce pollutant emissions in the port areas caused by marine fuels in auxiliaries engines feeding on board installations during ships stops at quays. The present paper aims to provide an overview of the most important technical and functional features of the concerned ships power systems and to analyze the technical, economic and financial feasibility of this system. In the first part the main technical-constructive elements for the application of Cold-ironing to different types of ship (such as voltage, frequency, power supply and power demand on the quay) are analyzed. The variety of functional situations does not allow to establish general constructive solutions since the cold-ironing system is depending both on the operational mode and the layout of each terminal. In the second part of the paper it has been analyzed the case study of the cruise terminal in Venice (VTP Spa Venice Passenger Terminal) with the aim of verifying the feasibility of a cold-ironing system for power supply of cruise ships on quays. The analysis was based on ships timetable for the year 2012, which includes the arrivals and the departures of 86 different ships with a global volume of 570 movements. Starting from data on dwell times, following the guidelines of the MEET methodology for estimating emission factors [3] it has been estimated pollutant emissions (nitrogen oxide NOx, sulfur oxides SOx, volatile organic compounds VOC, particulates PM, carbon monoxide CO) as a basis to calculate externalities to be considered for the Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA). Based on a probabilistic analysis of the terminal occupation by ships (disposal of ship stalls on each quays) five operational scenarios were defined. Each scenario has been defined on the basis of an economic evaluation by means of a cost-benefit parametric analysis with the aim of providing the maximum financial results for assigned budgets. From a comparison of the results of the cost-benefit analysis and an estimate of possible investment costs obtained from USA case studies, it is noticed that the scenario providing coverage of both financial and economic investment includes the minimum number of electrified stalls and a ships journeys reorganization. It was also proposed a sensitivity analysis of CBA for the evaluation of indicators variations according to reference conditions variation.