Port Everglades to Explore Cold Ironing

Port Everglades may become the first East Coast port in the United States to install cold ironing, an emissions-cutting practice that has become common for container lines at West Coast ports.

The Broward County Commission gave the port the go-ahead today to begin exploring the possibility of installing shore-side power for use by cruise ships, instead of container ships.

The cold ironing connections would be installed at the new Cruise Terminal 18, which will be the year-round homeport terminal for Royal Caribbean International's Oasis-class ships.

Cold ironing has become a common practice in such West Coast ports as Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland, where concerns over vessel emissions have raised much more concern than on the East Coast.

The practice allows a ship to shut off its engines and operate with shore-side electrical power, as opposed to burning diesel fuel while the ship is docked in the port. Cruise ships need power even while docked to run all onboard systems such as air conditioning and lighting.

Royal Caribbean Cruises, parent of Royal Caribbean International, has expressed an interest in partnering with Broward County and FPL to install the cold ironing infrastructure at Port Everglades, according to Port Everglades Director Phillip C. Allen.

The Broward County Commission directed the port staff today through a Memorandum of Understanding, to pursue further cost recovery options to recoup the estimated $6.4 million expenditure to install the cold ironing infrastructure.

Broward County Commissioner Kristin D. Jacobs said that by shutting down the engines and using electric shore-side power on the Oasis-class ships, which will be the two largest cruise ships in the world, each ship will experience annual reductions of 40.9 percent less CO2 emissions, 97.7 percent less nitrogen oxide emissions, 95.2 percent less sulfur dioxide emissions, and 88.1 percent less particulate matter.

At Cruise Terminal 18 in Port Everglades, Royal Caribbean and Broward County will connect to the Florida Power and Light power grid, which will require Broward County to execute a new interconnection agreement with FPL.

Contact Peter T. Leach at pleach@joc.com.