Onshore Power Supply in northwest Italian ports to reduce ships emissions – A focus on quantifying the social-economic benefits

Seaports are essential players in world economic growth, and many cities grew up alongside ports, gaining economic benefits from the flow of goods. However, a weakening of the ties between ports and their cities has been identified over recent decades. The cities near the ports are not receiving many benefits anymore; they are exposed to the negative impacts of the ports' industrial activities like air pollution. A moored ship needs to produce electrical power by auxiliary diesel engines, using fossil fuel, thus emitting air pollution, which adversely impacts the environment near the ports. Implementing Onshore Power Supply(OPS) helps limit these emissions effectively, ultimately reducing negative impacts. However, besides the environmental benefits, there are challenges in implementing onshore power supply in ports. These barriers in OPS use could differ from one port to another. Some Italian ports have plans to improve air quality and reduce ship emission pollution. In this respect, some intend to provide electricity to the port grid to deliver through onshore power supply facilities to the berthed ships in ports. In this research, a group of northwest Italian ports are selected as a case study to study the benefits of the avoided emissions due to OPS solutions. It aims to quantify the reduction in social costs because of avoided ships' emissions at ports due to the use of Onshore Power Supply(OPS) facilities. To fulfil this study's objectives, qualitative and quantitative methods combine to finally merge and interpret the information and data into the conclusion. The results may encourage the regional authorities to contribute to funding onshore power supply projects in the regions addressed in this study. As regulating the OPS for shore and ship sides is complex and involves different players. Therefore, within this research, a desktop analysis of OPS-related regulations at three International, European, and Italian levels is conducted. The analysis of the national regulatory shows a good level of maturity and readiness; in particular, Italy has already transposed the EU Directive 2014/94/EU on Alternative Fuels Infrastructure. The regulatory analysis is followed by a technical section on OPS general infrastructure and equipment elements. It paves the way for port authorities and administrations to a harmonized technical approach to addressing the OPS interface. In addition, the technical review supports the hypothesis in proposing OPS solutions for some Italian ports. Supported with appropriate surveys and desktop analysis, the adding value of the research is the introduction of a method for quantifying the social-economic benefits of using OPS in ports. In addition, the findings for the case-study ports in northwest Italy are accessible and usable for all ports. This thesis goes beyond the research limits about OPS installation in ports that traditionally consider only the economic benefits from selling electricity to ships. The innovation in calculating the externality cost reduction and also considering it as a part of the benefits can be used in any future cost-benefit analysis for OPS port projects. This research introduces a new perspective on the onshore power supply solution for ports from an environmental point of view.