Zinus has announced that it has been awarded the contract of developing and delivering a new shore power solution for cruise ships calling at Norway’s Haugesund Cruise Port by the company called Havnekraft. Several international ports are now also showing great interest in the solution, according to a press release.
According to the press release, Zinus has been offering its Shore Power Cruiser for several years, which is a specially developed, mobile and flexible system for transmitting high-voltage shore power to cruise ships and other large vessels. The company said that it is now taking the technology “one step further,” in line with a recent contract with Havnekraft AS in Haugesund, Norway – a company owned by Karmsund Port Authorities and the energy company Haugaland Kraft.
“Havnekraft wants to offer shore power to cruise ships calling at Garpeskjærskaien in Haugesund and has given Zinus the task of developing the next-generation shore power connection for this type of vessel. The new system will be an ‘all-in-one solution’ that focuses on fast connection, easy user operation and reduced operating costs. The product must also be able to manage large power variations and give Havnekraft a high degree of flexibility,” said Ronny Olson, sales director at Zinus.
The chairman of Havnekraft, Tine Osmundsen, said that the company chose Zinus because it is “one of the forerunners in cable management technology” and could offer “the best solution for our needs.”
“(I)t is extra gratifying to be able to award the contract to a local player. For us, it has been important to ensure fast and efficient connection of the cruise ships, and that the large high-voltage cables are easy and safe to handle for our personnel at the quay. Zinus has presented a very good and functional solution that takes care of all these considerations,” Osmundsen stated.
She said that Havnekraft has experienced Zinus as “very responsive to input, challenges and changes that have appeared during the development process.”
“In addition, their concept means that we can remove the cable handling unit when it is not in use, which provides good utilization of the quay also between cruise calls and outside the cruise season,” Osmundsen noted.
So far, Karmsund Port Authorities has booked 120 cruise calls in 2022. Around 90 percent of these ships can receive shore power. The goal is to sell up to nine million kilowatt-hours of electricity during an ordinary season, according to Zinus.
“This will result in a reduction in CO2 emissions of around 2,500 tonnes per season, compared to if the ships are running their diesel generators while docked,” the company wrote.
In addition to the climate and environmental benefits the port achieves with shore power from Zinus, Havnekraft also gets an extra advantage from the short distance between Haugesund and Zinus’ technology environment at Bømlo.
“The close proximity means that the customer can be close to the development work in our R&D team, that they get to buy local and sustainable products, and that they are guaranteed an extra short response time throughout the product’s lifetime,” Olson said.
Olson said that the contract with Havnekraft is important to Zinus.
“This … company will be an important customer for Zinus both today and in the future. In addition, several international ports have already shown great interest in our new cruise solution and await taking a closer look at the product when the first delivery is installed in Haugesund,” he noted.
Zinus sees the recent contract as “confirmation that the company is at the forefront of developments in shore power,” and that the company has ambitions for both the electrification of shipping and the strengthening of its own product portfolio.
“The agreement shows that we have a strong understanding of our customers and what is expected of our products and services. The best solutions often come in close dialogue between customer and supplier, and this project is an excellent example of such,” said Endre Eidsvik, the CEO of Zinus.
The new shore power connection for cruise ships will largely be based on the current solution from Zinus, the Shore Power Cruiser. Four such systems are currently installed in the port of Bergen. In addition to supplying renewable electricity to docked cruise ships, both the existing and upcoming Shore Power Cruiser solutions also contribute to “improved port logistics, better preservation and maintenance of cables and plugs,” Zinus said. This is thanks to the systems’ handling and storing of cables and connectors.
To further strengthen the environmental and climate friendliness of the shore power solution, Zinus said that its cable management unit is equipped with batteries and an electric motor, which ensure zero-emission transportation along the quayside.
