Asyaport sets milestone as Türkiye’s first port to provide shore power to containerships

October 29, 2024, by Sara Kosmajac

Asyaport, considered to be Türkiye’s largest container terminal today, has completed the installation of an onshore power supply (OPS), becoming “the first port in Türkiye” to offer shore power to container vessels.

As disclosed, the system will provide electricity to berthed ships, which is anticipated to reduce the vessels’ carbon emissions and environmental footprint ‘by a considerable margin’.

The system—part of an onshore power project that has been running for three years at the terminal—is believed to possess the capacity to, for instance, supply high-voltage power to two mainline ships and three feeder vessels at the same time.

Asyaport, which currently and ‘exclusively’ runs on electrified cranes to ensure a ‘sustainable positioning of the containers at the terminal’, shared that the onshore power capability is a further addition to the facility’s existing portfolio of features that cut down on its emissions.

The first vessel to have tested this new system was revealed to be the 199,300 dwt MSC Oscar, ‘one of the largest container vessels in the world’ with a length of 396 meters and a capacity of circa 20,000 TEU.

The Panama-flagged ship, presently in the service of the Swiss shipping heavyweight Mediterranean Shipping Company’s (MSC) Tiger service that connects trade between Asia and Europe, underwent a 48-hour operation wherein its energy needs at berth were ‘successfully met’ with the onshore electricity from Asyaport’s new OPS, MSC explained.

Ever since it was established by Global Terminal Limited (GTL), MSC’s terminal investment company, and the Turkish Soyuer family, located in Barbaros, Tekirdağ, Asyaport has taken numerous steps to improve its environmental footprint.

As per MSC, this terminal has been generating electricity for its own consumption through solar energy systems, with a reported total of 3,020 solar panels with a capacity of 1,289.03 kW. Right now, 6% of the port’s total energy consumption is believed to be provided by these panels.

In addition to this, feasibility and project studies are already well underway to see how energy at the terminal could be produced from renewable sources only, with plans to establish a renewable energy supply chain from production to consumption, MSC revealed.

To remind, last year, MSC held a naming ceremony for its Calestino Maresca-class 24,000 TEU vessel at Asyaport. The vessel, christened MSC Türkiye, is argued to be not just one of the world’s largest but also the most fuel-efficient boxships by design to date.