Recommendation 13

HM Government Accepted in Part

The Government partially agrees. The UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE) focuses on accelerating the technology necessary to decarbonise the maritime sector, by moving solutions through the TRLs and unlocking future private investment. Projects focused on shore-side electrical charging, including shore power, are in scope for the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition, which is currently in its third round. Additionally, under the £77m Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure competition, which launched in February 2023, there is a specific strand for shore power projects, providing access to funds for demonstration of this technology over a multi-year period. Beyond the existing UK SHORE funding, the Government has no current plans to create additional funding streams to support the deployment of shore power (an already established technology). The Government recognises that shore power is one of the available technologies to reduce vessel emissions at berth in certain use cases. To further support the maritime sector in their efforts to decarbonise, we are using the evidence provided in response to the 2022 call for evidence to inform our future plans and policies and are currently considering how shore power can be deployed within the wider context of zero emissions ports. To achieve this, we are considering whether to publish a call for evidence, a feasibility study and a subsequent consultation on how ports can reduce their emissions. This is likely to explore timescales, scope of emissions and consider whether Government should take a technology-neutral approach, rather than backing a specific technology type. We will seek to provide an update on this work in the Clean Maritime Plan. Nevertheless, a key factor for implementation of shore power and other decarbonisation measures at ports is securing the increased electricity grid capacity from their distribution network operator. The ports industry has raised two specific challenges with Government, the large cost of connections and the distance in the future of the connection windows they are receiving from Distribution Network Operators so that they can secure extra power as they decarbonise. For electricity distribution network connection applications received from 1 April 2023, Ofgem has decided that demand connections, such as those for shore power, will no longer be liable to contribute to distribution network reinforcement costs to accommodate their connection. This will reduce connection costs for customers where such work is required. The department will work with the industry to understand their current and future energy requirements, and with other parts of Government to ensure future energy requirements are recognised and can be factored into relevant power or energy workstreams.