Recently, at the 2024 Industry Standard Kick-off Seminar on the Application of Electric Ship Charging and Swapping Technology, Wuhan Electric Ship Charging and Swapping Technology was unanimously recognized by industry experts, which will fill the gap in the industry standard in the field of electric ship power supply and shore power facility communication. On April 24, Jiupai News learned from State Grid Hubei Electric Power Co., Ltd. that the company took the lead in compiling the national technical standard for charging and swapping electric ships with this technology. Experts from the Technical Committee for Standardization of Shore Power Facilities in the Energy Industry said that the application and popularization of electric ships will be the same trend as new energy vehicles, and it is recommended that the state formulate unified standards for the construction of battery swap stations, so as to ultimately achieve resource sharing and efficient utilization.
The "China Airlines Xinneng 1" charging ship departed from Yangluo Port with full cargo and headed for Xiantao, 150 kilometers away. Photo/Yangtze River Daily
[1] Wuhan has the first electric ship battery swap station in China, which helps to form technical standards
At the Yangluo Port Wharf in Wuhan, the country's first Yangtze River branch battery-powered container liner "Huahang Xinneng 1" pure electric ship was loaded with four 2,000 kWh box power supplies at the stern of the ship and sailed to Xiantao Port 150 kilometers away by waterway, with a capacity of 120 TEUs and a load of 1,650 tons. As an important supporting project of the ship, the first container electric ship swap station in Hubei Province, invested and built by State Grid Hubei Electric Power, was completed and put into use in November 2023.
"The station is the first ship battery swap station in China with the largest single battery capacity, and the first fully automatic plugging technology for battery swap power supply in China to achieve safe and fast power connection and efficient operation and maintenance. Li Wei, the shore power director of State Grid Electric Vehicle Service Hubei Co., Ltd., introduced that the full charge of the battery of "Huahang Xinneng 1" can reach 1935 kWh, and the full charge of 3 batteries can support the electric ship on the 150-kilometer route from Wuhan to Xiantao. At the same time, water and electricity are separated to avoid the potential safety hazards of waterfront charging, and the whole process is completed in 10 minutes.
Li Wei told Jiupai News that the ship is estimated to make 84 round-trips per year, with an annual power consumption of about 530,000 kWh, which can replace 132 tons of fuel oil every year, reduce emissions by 392 tons of various gases, and save energy costs of 730,000 yuan.
Rong Yanhai, an expert of the Technical Committee for Standardization of Shore Power Facilities in the Energy Industry, believes that the advanced nature of Yangluo Port Battery Swap Station is reflected in four aspects: First, from the configuration, the project is the first electric ship battery swap station in China, equipped with the largest single capacity of the box-type power supply in the country, and the first application of PCS equipment and box-type transformer in the field of ships, through the primary and secondary integration of high-voltage switchgear stations to achieve energy distribution, through energy storage monitoring and energy management system to ensure the safe, reliable and stable operation of the battery swap station and power grid.
Second, from the technical point of view, the project pioneered the "shipborne box-type power automatic charging control system", which realizes automatic plug positioning, flexible cable retraction, automatic plug-in of connectors and intelligent locking, and greatly improves the convenience, safety and intelligence level of large-capacity electrical box power connection operation. Third, in terms of benefits, the project has both environmental benefits, economic benefits and social benefits. Pure electric container liners can effectively reduce carbon emissions and environmental pollution at ports and terminals, reduce the energy cost of ships and port areas while helping the power grid peak shaving and valley filling through peak charging, and fully explore the performance of box-type power supply and participate in the construction and operation of virtual power plants, which will reflect social benefits in serving the construction of new power systems. Fourth, in a sense, the project is meeting the differentiated energy demand of "rivers, lakes and reservoirs", promoting the systematic development of the whole industrial chain of green and intelligent ships, and providing a model for the whole basin to accelerate the green transformation of shipping with vivid practice. The completion and operation of the project also provides a case for the formation of relevant technical standards in the field of ship charging and battery swapping in China.
Yangluo Port Battery Swap Station. Photo/Yangtze River Daily
[2] Ship electrification is the same trend as new energy vehicles, and it has a wide range of application scenarios
"In the future, the electrification of ships is a trend, which is similar to new energy vehicles and can be popularized. Rong Yanhai introduced, the application scenarios of electric boats mainly include the following categories: one is inland river and offshore shipping, electric ships are suitable for inland river transportation and offshore port operations, such as passenger ships, cargo ships and port operation ships, etc.; Fourth, official boats, which are used for patrolling, search and rescue and other official activities, electric boats can reduce noise and improve the concealment and efficiency of tasks.
"The development of electric ships from official ships and cruise ships to current cargo ships has entered a new stage. Rong Yanhai believes that the promotion of electric ships can not only help environmental protection, electric ships reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, but also help to achieve the "Yangtze River protection", "double carbon" goals; With the increase in global demand for new energy, the electric ship market is expected to grow rapidly, bringing new economic growth points to related industries.
[3] Wuhan has inherent advantages, and the development of electric ships will become a new engine for economic development
It is understood that at present, the inland waterway shipping capacity of the Yangtze River ranks first in the world. Wuhan is an important port city in the Yangtze River basin, and has been at the forefront of the country in the development of inland river vessels and electric inland river vessels. According to the Yangtze River Daily, on May 6 last year, the Yangtze River 10,000-ton pure electric green intelligent bulk carrier independently developed by China Shipbuilding Group Wuchang Shipbuilding was awarded the Approval-in-Principle (AIP) certificate by the China Classification Society, marking an important step forward for Wuchang Shipbuilding in the field of independent research and development of green and intelligent ships on the Yangtze River. In January this year, the first domestically produced large-scale cruise ship "Aida Modu" and the world's first 700TEU pure battery-powered river-sea direct container ship designed and built by Wuhan University of Technology were selected as the "Top Ten Heavy Weapons of Central Enterprises".
In 2018, Wuhan University of Technology initiated the establishment of the "Intelligent New Energy Ship Technology Innovation Industry Alliance", aiming to promote the technological innovation and industrialization of intelligent new energy ships in mainland China, realize the technical cooperation, project cooperation and information sharing of alliance members, and build a leading domestic and internationally renowned ship high-tech industry alliance integrating "production, learning, research, engineering and finance".
As one of the members of the alliance, Rong Yanhai told Jiupai News that Wuhan has congenital scientific and technological advantages, and the provincial and municipal governments also attach great importance to the development of electric ships, and the Yangtze River Basin has formed four major shipbuilding industrial bases in Hubei, such as Huanggang, Xiangyang, Yichang and Jingzhou, "I think that the development of electric ships will make Hubei from the industrial chain, from raw materials and steel, including information, logistics, manufacturing, batteries, including some layout, operation and maintenance of battery swap stations along the Yangtze River, etc., will become a new engine for Hubei's economic development." He said.
[4] Experts appealed: the construction of battery swap stations requires the state to formulate unified standards
At present, the first container electric ship battery swap station in Hubei Province is only available for the battery swap of the "Huahang Xinneng 1" pure electric ship. Experts at the meeting proposed that in the future, whether the charging and swapping station can be paired with other types of ships to provide battery swap services, "the key is that his battery must meet my design requirements for automatic plugging," once everyone does it according to this standard, it can save a lot of manpower, material resources, and operation and maintenance costs, which is very critical.
"In the early stage of the development of the industry, this battery swap station standard must be built, otherwise it will be the same as our mobile phone chargers, which are diverse and cannot be shared. Rong Yanhai said that in the layout of this charging and swapping station, if each industry designs according to its own needs, it will be very chaotic and cannot be shared with each other, which is actually a waste of resources.
He said that now many enterprises in the shipbuilding industry should consider building electric ships, batteries and charging stations, so his investment may be large and unbearable. He called for the construction of battery swap stations to be unified standards at the national level. If the battery swap station is included in the public station for sharing, the enterprise only needs to consider building ships, and the battery swap station is a public resource, so the cost will be greatly reduced.
Jiupai News reporter Wang Jing correspondent Huang Jiyuan
[Source: Jiupai News]
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