Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority has selected 11 design proposals as part of its ongoing competition to develop advanced electric harbor crafts. The authority reports it received strong interest in the effort designed to promote the adoption of fully electric harbor craft demonstrating the strong interest and confidence of the industry in the development of this new generation of vessels.
The initiative launched in July 2023 as part of the efforts to advance decarbonization in one of the busiest ports in the world and at the same time promote the adoption of electrification as a means of addressing the challenges. The MPA reports it received a total of 55 proposals from 32 international and local companies and consortia.
Participants submitted technically strong designs according to the MPA, including the use of optimized aluminum hull form, high energy density batteries with active liquid cooling, and battery thermal detection and protection system, among others.
One of the key concerns that they also sought to address is the total cost of ownership for electric vessels with the goal of making them comparable to a conventional harbor craft. Participants in the program demonstrated that while electric harbor crafts currently have higher upfront capital costs due primarily to the higher cost of the batteries and associated systems, the MPA says these costs can be mitigated by energy cost savings from operating the more energy-efficient e-harbor crafts, reduced maintenance cost, and operational downtime.
Several of the participants also proposed business models to optimize the harbor craft resource at the sector level while lowering the overall total cost of ownership to individual companies. According to the MPA, these proposals aim to encourage more companies, especially those with smaller fleet sizes, to make the transition, by presenting viable business cases based on aggregation, while enabling an efficient and responsive sector-level capability to meet the needs of ships calling into Singapore.
Source maritime
