The Transportation Ministry will start applying a policy that prioritizes the management of environment-friendly ports (ecoport) in Indonesia that essentially refer to the concept of sustainable development or environmentally safe ports.
Director General of Sea Transportation of the Ministry of Transportation, Arif Toha, stated that environmentally friendly port management will be conducted by implementing On-shore Power Supply (OPS) sources as one of the steps for shipping decarbonization. OPS is also a mitigation action to reduce greenhouse gases in the shipping sector.
“OPS is an effort to ensure that the port service will be safe and adequate before the issuance of the Circular Letter of the Director General of Sea Transportation regarding OPS in Indonesian ports/terminals,” Toha noted when reviewing the readiness to implement OPS at the Pier 209 of Tanjung Priok Port, Jakarta, Thursday.
As a regulator, his side supports the action by including the OPS program as one of the main policies. The Directorate General of Maritime Relations immediately issued a circular on the implementation of onshore electric power connection as a legal framework and believed that OPS was more efficient and affordable for ships and would bring benefits in terms of environmental protection.
Before issuing the circular, several steps were taken including the trial period, OPS discussion, dissemination of information on the SE draft, agreement and dissemination of information on tariffs, and the implementation of mandatory OPS, Toha remarked.
“Currently, 20 ports in Indonesia are equipped with OPS that are prepared to serve the needs of ships when they dock at ports,” he added.
Apart from providing benefits for the environment, OPS is also able to provide fuel cost efficiency for ship operations while docking at the port.
OPS is a land electricity network installed at the dock used by the ship while docking at the port. The facility is used to replace the ship’s energy source that earlier used oil-fueled ship engines to become an electrical energy-source.
OPS has become one of the climate change mitigation actions from sea transportation that has participated in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions since 2019.
Source: Antara News