Cost assessment of ship emission reduction methods at berth: the case of the Port of Piraeus,Greece

This paper addresses the problem of ship exhaust emissions at the Port of Piraeus and undertakes the challenge of finding a cost-effective option for its reduction according to the upcoming requirements of the 2005/33/EU Directive, through analysis of port traffic data and the utilisation of the experience gained through previous studies in this field. The Port of Piraeus makes a particularly suitable reference for this type of work, since it is one of the busiest and highly urbanised ports in the world. It is shown that cruise ships calling at Piraeus fulfill the criteria of selection for such an exercise by virtue of their frequency of calling, berth power requirements and time spent at berth. It was found that, according to current practice, cruise ships at berth consume 11 034 tons of fuel and produce 620.1 tons of NO_X, 274.8 tons of SO₂ and 20.7 tons of PM, totalling to 915.6 tons of exhaust emissions per year. This represents an overall annual cost of 21 million euro, divided between private (bunkering) and external (emission damage) costs by 19.4% and 80.6%, respectively. With regard to the upcoming EU requirements for ship power at berth, it was found that, irrespective of whether operating on ultralow-sulphur (0.1% sulphur) fuel or on shore-side electricity, a sizeable reduction in emissions and associated external costs is achieved, whereas private costs were always higher than those of the current practice. Comparing the two options, it was further found that the shore-side electricity presents the lowest external costs but highest private costs, whereas the overall costs are around 25% lower than the onboard use of ultralow-sulphur fuel.