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New-generation container ship plugs-in to access ''eco-friendly'' on-dock electric power

LOS ANGELES – 10/02/07 – The world’s largest alternative maritime power (AMP) ship recently made her maiden call at the Port of Los Angeles.

The ship, China Shipping’s 8,500-TEU Xin Ya Zhou, is the largest “AMP’d” vessel afloat and is the first in a series of five new vessels to join the company’s new-generation fleet of “environmentally friendly” container ships.

In 2004, the port partnered with China Shipping on a project to develop the world’s first utilization of shore-side electrical power for a containership at berth.

AMP capability allows the berthed ship to shut-down its diesel engine and utilize electrical power to operate its generators and other equipment. By making the switch, more than one ton of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) can be eliminated from the air for each day the vessel is berthed.

The arrival of the Xin Ya Zhou marks the second generation of “AMP’d” vessels which can plug directly into a shore plug, where the first generation AMP vessels required a barge transformer system for plugging in.

Last November, the neighboring ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach adopted the landmark San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) to curb port-related air pollution from trucks, ships, locomotives, and other equipment by at least 45% in five years.

The plan calls for the Port of Los Angeles – currently the only port in the world implementing AMP technology – to make all its terminals AMP-ready within the next five years.

The 101,000-ton, 25-knot Xin Ya Zhou is the largest ship ever built in China and will sail on the company's weekly Central Asia-America service calling at Los Angeles, Oakland, Ningbo, Nansha, Yantian, and Shanghai.

Earlier this summer, both ports commissioned the first of a new fleet of lower-emission, clean-diesel locomotives operated by the Pacific Harbor Line, which provides switching services for port customers and dispatching for all BNSF Railway and Union Pacific trains within the ports.

The locomotives, outfitted with remanufactured engines, reportedly emit 70% less diesel particulates and 46% less smog-forming nitrogen oxides, and cut greenhouse gases by burning 30% less fuel.

Port of Los Angeles terminals with on-dock rail alone handled more than 1.3 million containers during 2006, or about 28% of all containers handled at the port last year.

The $23 million cost for the new “eco-friendly” locomotives is being shared by PHL ($10 million) and the ports ($5 million each), with additional funds from the State of California’s Carl Moyer Program, which is administered by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD).

The engines meet the US Environmental Protection Agency’s “Tier 2” standards for reduction of air pollutants and replace much older diesel locomotive engines, some of which are 50 years old.

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