Broward County and its Port Everglades Department reached a $495,000 agreement today with Florida Power & Light (FPL) to explore providing electrical shore power to all eight cruise ship berths at the world’s third largest cruise homeport, according to a press release.

The agreement gives FPL the go ahead to begin design services required to construct a new electrical sub-station and power distribution facilities at Port Everglades.

“When we first explored shore power back in 2009, few of the cruise ships that came to Port Everglades were equipped to connect at that time, so it was premature to make a multi-million dollar investment. Now is the time as today’s cruise ships being built for energy efficiency and the lines are retrofitting their older fleet with shore power technology,” said Port Everglades Chief Executive and Port Director Jonathan Daniels.

He added that the Port will seek state and federal cost-sharing opportunities such as grants, with the balance of the project shared between the Port and the cruise lines.

The approximately three-month preliminary design phase includes assessing the capability and capacity of the electrical grid to determining the necessary electrical infrastructure upgrades required to effectively deliver shore power to each of the Port’s eight cruise berths.