ABB to provide shore-to-ship power for Dutch ferries
10 December 2011
ABB has won an order from Stena Line B.V., a subsidiary of Stena AB, one of the world’s largest ferry companies, to provide the complete electrical infrastructure needed to simultaneously power several vessels while berthed in the port of Hoek van Holland (Rotterdam).
The turnkey project entails both onshore and onboard installations. Onshore, ABB will provide the transformer and converter substations including all cables and two berth terminals needed to connect various types of vessels to the port’s grid. The solution includes frequency converters to convert power from 50 Hz, the standard grid frequency in Europe, to 60 Hz, the system frequency of most vessels, as well as the automation system to ensure safe and smooth connection.
Following a shore-to-ship power installation in the port of Gothenburg inaugurated in January 2011, the company is undertaking this bigger project in Hoek van Holland that will allow the simultaneous connection of two vessels to the local grid.
ABB is responsible for the design, engineering, project management, installation and commissioning of the solutions and will supply equipment such as medium-voltage switchgear, transformers, frequency converters, automation interfaces, cables, cooling systems as well as control and protection equipment. The project is scheduled for completion in 2012.
On board, ABB will modify the electrical and automation systems to enable shore-side power supply. The modifications will be executed on two ROPAX (roll-on/roll-off passenger) vessels, Stena Hollandica and Stena Britannica, as well as on two RORO (roll-on/roll-off) vessels, Stena Transporter and Stena Transit.
Since much electricity is made with natural gas, perhaps the best use of resources would be to pipe natural gas to some of the ships engines for clean burning and co-generation. Then the ships would not be a big increased load on the grid, but could even add power to the grid.
General Electric built a motor driven rotating core transformer to move power to and from two non synchronous grids and the main power path does not go through a single semiconductor nor is much of it converted to mechanical energy and little or no harmonic filtering is needed. ABB could use its motor-former technology on at least one of the windings, and make smaller units to convert frequencies. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 10 December 2011 at 10:23 PM