Tallink’s Megastar switches to shore power at Port of Helsinki

Tallink Grupp’s shuttle vessel Megastar has started using shore power at the Port of Helsinki.

On 7 April, the vessel started using high voltage shore connection facilities at the Port of Helsinki West Harbour while it was berthed at the quayside overnight between departures. For the company, this means less noise emitted by the ship during its port stays in all the region’s major capitals, which also means less greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The Port of Stockholm was the first port in the company’s home markets to upgrade its port infrastructure and complete the build of the high voltage shore-power connection dispensers, with Tallink Grupp’s vessels Silja Symphony and Silja Serenade being the first ships to be retrofitted with the EU standard-compliant shore-power plugs.

The vessels were connected to the on-shore facility in Stockholm in June 2019.

Port of Tallinn quickly followed suit in autumn 2020 with five of its quays fitted with the necessary shore connection facilities and Tallink Grupp’s vessels Victoria I and Baltic Queen plugged into shore power.

Port of Helsinki ports Olympia Terminal and West Harbour have been the last to finish their shore connection construction projects with Olympia launching its HVSC facilities in August 2021 and vessels arriving at the West Harbour plugging in to use shore power last week. 

Tallink shuttle vessels Megastar and MyStar are now using shore power during their overnight stays at the ports of Helsinki and Tallinn respectively.

To remind, the construction of MyStar was launched in April 2020 and the ferry was completed and delivered in December last Year. Finnish shipbuilder Rauma Marine Constructions (RMC) was contracted to build the ship.

Tallink cruise ferry Baltic Queen is currently using shore power at the ports of Tallinn and Stockholm during its daytime port stays, and the company’s cruise ferries Silja Serenade and Silja Symphony are connected to shore power during their daytime port stays at the ports of Stockholm and Helsinki Olympia Terminal. 

The company estimates that connecting the vessels to shore power facilities during their longer port stays reduces CO2 emissions of the company’s shuttle vessels MyStar and Megastar by 112 tons per month (1344 tons of CO2 per annum).

Being connected to shore power enables the cruise vessel Baltic Queen to save 95 tons of CO2 per month (1140 tons of CO2 per annum) and cruise vessels Silja Symphony and Silja Serenade to save 156 tons of CO2 per month (1872 tons of CO2 per annum), Tallink stressed.

All five vessels using shore power during their longer port stays means that the company is reducing its CO2 emissions as a result by a whopping 7572 tons per year. 

Commenting on the impact of the use of shore power at tree key ports in the Baltic Sea region, Captain Tarvi-Carlos Tuulik, Head of Ship Management at Tallink Grupp said: 

“We are pleased that the significant effort made both by Tallink Grupp as well as our partner ports in Tallinn, Stockholm and Helsinki has got us to a point where our operations are increasingly environmentally friendly and sustainable. It has not been a simple project and has required significant investments both on our part in terms of retrofitting our ships with the necessary equipment meeting the EU standards, as well as the ports, but the end result is worth it and an important milestone on our journey of developing sustainable shipping in the Baltic Sea region.”

“Our focus remains on finding technological solutions that help us achieve ever greater energy efficiencies for our current fleet, on solutions that enable us to minimise any harmful impacts and we pay close attention to anything and everything that keeps us at the forefront of sustainable shipping.” 

The ports of Tallinn, Helsinki, Stockholm and Turku signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on a common approach to on-shore power supply for vessels in September 2016.

With the memorandum, the Port of Tallinn, Port of Helsinki, Ports of Stockholm and Port of Turku set a common approach to as well as informed shipowners about the principles and standards governing electricity connections for ships in the future.

The ports agreed to provide new connections with a voltage of 11 kilovolts and a frequency of 50 hertz.