Port terminals: shore power and crane automation without peaks

Shore power creates sharp load peaks at the berth

What happens. European rules oblige major seaports to supply container and passenger ships with shore power (European Environment Agency). When a large vessel plugs in, the berth draws a big block of power at once, then nothing for days. The grid connection has to be sized for the peak, while the average use is low.

What it costs. A connection built for the peak is expensive and sits mostly idle. Peak charges and connection fees land on the port or terminal, and a berth that is too small turns ships away or leaves them on their own engines.

Why the usual fix fails. Adding capacity is the obvious answer, and the most costly. Rules of thumb for the connection size ignore that ships differ, that several berths rarely peak together, and that cranes, cold stores and chargers share the same feed.

How a fixed-price remote diagnosis checks it. From berth meter data, call schedules and the site’s load profile, I look at how the peaks really add up and which could be shifted or capped. The fixed-price remote diagnosis tells you whether load management lets a smaller connection do the job, and what it would take.

Background: Economic predictive control

Quay cranes: automation and sway control for the next generation

What happens. Terminals are automating more quay cranes and moving operators from the cab to a remote desk. The new cranes are faster and the load is steered with fewer visual cues. Sway at the end of a hoist shows up as waiting time and careful, slow handling.

What it costs. Lost cycles at the quay wall are lost berth time. Sway adds positioning corrections, wear on hoists and drives, and in the worst case damaged containers or spreaders. Energy peaks of the crane drives also reach the terminal’s grid connection.

Why the usual fix fails. Tuning each crane by hand during commissioning gives a setting that fits one load and one wind condition. Remote operation without a model of the rope and trolley dynamics leaves the operator to cope with sway that the control could handle.

How a fixed-price remote diagnosis checks it. From crane logs (positions, speeds, drive currents, load weights) and commissioning records, I check how much sway and waiting time a model-based control could remove and what the drives allow. The fixed-price remote diagnosis answers whether anti-sway control is worth adding and in what order.

Background: Predictive drive control