Norwegian Electric Systems (NES) has provided ferry operator Fjord1 with two new shore charging stations to supply electrical power to vessels serving the municipalities of Hareid and Sulesund route in western Norway.
NES said that each station has a charging power of approximately five MW and could fully charge the batteries on Fjord1's electric ferries in as little as six minutes.
Calculations were made on the Hareid and Sulesund ferry terminals, and these showed that the existing grids at both locations would need additional power to achieve the necessary charging capacity. NES then collaborated with local grid operator MoereNett to ensure the grid was strengthened on both ends of the route.
The systems on board the ferries and on shore act as a part of a larger single system. When a ferry approaches the charging station, information about the energy consumption used on the trip will be sent to the shore station.
In addition to utilising this information, the system will also check the power grid and adjust the system so that no voltage disturbances occur.
The charging system is designed to minimise voltage disturbance and reactive power is fed back to the grid during charging to maintain grid-voltage level.
Calculations done in the system will also ensure that the charging power is adjusted to transfer only the needed energy. Optimal charging power will ensure that unnecessary wear on batteries and power electronics is avoided, both on board the ferries and on shore.
The system is also equipped with remote access, which gives NES technicians access to monitor the entire sequence from the company's head office in Bergen. The technicians can support the crew if any issues should occur in the operation.
NES will also deliver operational data continuously to a cloud-based solution so that Fjord1 can have a full overview of consumption and operation. In addition, the charging system can be configured to reduce peak power and limit the amount of energy from the grid for a short period of time when, for example, electricity rates are high.
In total, the charging stations on this ferry route are expected to carry out approximately 32,000 charging operations and transfer an estimated 11,200 MWh each year.
The charging stations are already being used by the Fjord1 ferries Suloey, Hadaroey, and Giskoey. Both NES and Fjord1 claim that the transition from diesel-driven ferries to all-electric ferries on the Hareid-Sulesund crossing will ensure an annual reduction in CO2 emissions of as much as 7,000 tonnes or the equivalent output of 3,800 cars.
