Danaos Shipping, one of the world's largest independent owners of containerships, chose Wärtsilä’s SAMCon shore connection for their container vessel Danae C. “We favoured a shore connection over other alternatives, because it is an environmentally-friendly solution,” says Mr Eleftherios Keroglou, Electrical Department Manager at Danaos Shipping Co. Ltd.
The 208-metre-long vessel Danae C, with a nominal container capacity of 2,524 TEUS, is mostly trading in the USA, and often to Californian ports where strict emission regulations are in place and shore power is available at almost every port. The Wärtsilä
SAMCon shore connection is a smart way to comply with port emission requirements and reduce the environmental footprint. “We had heard about SAMCon previously during a Wärtsilä presentation,” says Mr. Keroglou.
A shore connection, also known as cold ironing, is when a ship is in port with all its engines shut down and is receiving its electrical power requirements from the local onshore grid. Wärtsilä’s containerised SAMCon shore connection provides
a complete solution for cold ironing. The standard 40ft-high cube container can be installed at any suitable location onboard the vessel, and for low-voltage applications, a step-down transformer can be included. The SAMCon solution is available for
both newbuilds and retrofits.
According to Mr. Keroglou, the retrofit installation took three months to complete and was rather demanding, since everything had to be done at sea without interfering with the vessel’s schedule. The
delivery of the main parts had to be strictly coordinated with the vessel’s ports of call. This meant that the project deadline allowed no room for error. “The most difficult part was placing the transformer to its final position due to
its size/weight and space availability.
Mr. Keroglou says that Wärtsilä’s team did a great job. “The cooperation with our staff was very good and Wärtsilä’s team informed us on a continuous basis about installation planning and progress. It was very important
for us to feel confident that this demanding project would be handled professionally.”
The vessel, Danae C, is now able to connect to shore power, which currently is the most environmentally-friendly energy source at some US ports.
Mr. Keroglou expects that more ports worldwide will soon require shore connection capability. “Danaos Shipping supports and encourages these environmentally-friendly energy solutions which comply with the Alternative Maritime Power® (AMP)
programme.”
The whole communication with Wärtsilä’s people, from project discussions (commercial and technical) until final delivery was done in a very professional and trustworthy manner. This was a positive experience for us.
