The APB launches a tender for two cold ironing projects in the ports of Eivissa and Palma
Four new installations are underway, budgeted at almost €15 million, while the first shore connection in Palma will be operational shortly
Palma
13/05/2024
The Balearic Islands Port Authority (APB) has launched a tender for two projects to build an electrical shore connection infrastructure for ships at the Botafoc docks in the Port of Eivissa and the Commercial docks in the Port of Palma. This technique is called cold ironing and is an alternative for ships to keep their machinery idle, which reduces noise and air pollution while they are moored in the port.
The tender for the Port of Eivissa project comes to more than €6.1 million, while the budget for the Port of Palma is more than €2.8 million. The European Union is financing 40% of the investment cost through the NextGeneration funds. Construction is estimated to take 12 months to complete.
These two projects provide medium and low voltage power supplies to enable electricity to be fed from the port to the ships that dock at the Pantalán Sur of the Botafoc dock in the Port of Eivissa and in the first outer stretch of the Commercial docks in the Port of Palma. These locations at the two general interest ports already have pre-installations for cold ironing system cabling.
The two infrastructures will be prepared to connect a ferry-type ship with a maximum power demand of 1,600 kW (medium voltage) and another fast ferry-type ship with 800 kW (low voltage) to the electricity grid, although not simultaneously.
Cold ironing in the ports of Alcúdia and Maó
The APB is also working on the installation project for this system which allows direct electrical connection for ships in the ports of Alcúdia and Maó.
The project for the Port of Alcúdia opened for tender last November and is currently pending adjudication. This system will provide electrical shore connection for ships docking at the Poniente docks. The budget is €2.6 million.
The cold ironing project for the port of Maó will be carried out in Cós Nou. At present, bids are being received, since the invitation to tender was published in March. The cost in this case is €3.4 million.
In total, the port organisation will invest €14.9 million to implement cold ironing systems in the ports of Palma, Alcúdia, Eivissa and Maó.
The first cold ironing installation
The APB launched a tender in 2019 for the first project in Spain for a medium-voltage electrical shore connection for ferries in the Port of Palma. At the end of 2021, trials of the cold ironing system began at the Paraires docks. In the end, the infrastructure will soon be put into regular service for ships docking in this part of the Port of Palma.
This installation is ready to connect to the electricity grid (although not at the same time) a maximum power ferry and another fast ferry ship, in much the same way as the two projects that are in the tendering phase in Eivissa and Palma. The system has 275 metres of medium-voltage underground lines, a transformer station and a frequency-elevation substation for electrical hook-up in the service area of the Port of Palma.
