APL ships will cold iron at Oakland next year

APL ships will cold iron at Oakland next year    APL said $11 million will be spent to allow some of its ships to run on electric power when they call at its terminal in Oakland as soon as next year.
   With the aid of $4.8 million in grant money from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, the company will electrify its Global Gateway Central terminal in Oakland and modify five containerships in its PCE service so they can “cold iron,” or use shore power rather than run diesel generators when tied up in Oakland.
   Speaking from the APL Korea, one of the ships that will undergo conversion, Mike Zampa, a spokesman for the company, said the ships will be able to cold iron at other ports, for example in Southern California, where terminals are electrified. Regulations mandating cold-ironing in California will take effect in 2014, and Zampa said the company will begin to schedule modification of its other ships once work on the first five is completed.
   He said it will cost about $1.5 million to modify each ship so they can use electric power in port. Work on the ships will begin in a month in Singapore and work on the terminal will begin late next summer and take about four months. Then the ships will be able to use shore power.
   Cold-ironing will cut more than 50,000 pounds of nitrogen oxides emissions, a leading component of smog, from ships berthed in Oakland and 1,500 pounds of particulate matter annually. APL will be the first carrier and terminal operator to cold-iron vessels in Oakland.
      'Diesel emissions from port operations have a serious health impact in the West Oakland community,' said Jack Broadbent, executive officer of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. 'APL is getting a head start to reduce emissions well before the state deadline.'