Electrifying issues provide progress and challenges

Electrification continues to be a major topic in much of Interferry’s regulatory activity. Further down I’ll outline some key developments pertinent to reducing greenhouse gas emissions – a mission exemplified by the ferry sector’s pioneering progress in adopting battery and hybrid power. But first I want to touch on a relatively recent challenge: fire risks arising from the carriage of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs).

The efficacy of conventional sea-water drencher systems in tackling BEV fires has been evaluated under the European Union’s LASH FIRE initiative, a four-year ro-ro fire safety project launched in 2019 with Interferry among 27 industry and research partners. The increasing prevalence of BEVs had prompted concerns over the management of fires stemming from thermal runaways in lithium-ion battery packs. LASH FIRE set about assessing fixed drencher extinguishment capability, together with the specific training required for onboard firefighting crews to intervene manually.

Reassuringly, comprehensive tests have shown that the overall risk of BEV fires should be considered equivalent to or lower than the risk from internal combustion engine vehicles – and that such fires could be contained by drencher systems provided they are SOLAS-compliant designed and operated.

The ferry sector was equally pleased with outcomes from the IMO’s Ship Systems and Equipment sub-committee meeting in March. The final draft of new SOLAS requirements to minimise the risk and spread of fires on ro-pax ships particularly addressed special category spaces on both new and existing ships, with notable attention to weather deck and side opening issues. In June, the detection and protection amendments – which I will explain in my conference presentation – were approved by the Maritime Safety Committee and are due in force from 1 January 2026.

The MSC also agreed interim guidelines on the safe operation of Onshore Power Supply connections to ships at berth. This is a welcome step in the light of Interferry’s campaign urging a major upscale of port grid capacity – increasingly, many ferries will rely on OPS not only for their energy consumption in port, but also to recharge batteries for propulsion. On the environmental front, new regulations effective from January 2023 require all existing ships to measure their attained energy efficiency under the EEXI Index, and must also collect carbon intensity data to report their annual operational CII performance.

In July, the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee sprang a major surprise with far more stringent targets for reducing well-towake GHG emissions compared with 2008 levels. Shipping was already attuned to a starting point of 20-30% by 2030, but not the 70-80% by 2040 that has now been set on the way to net zero ‘by or around 2050’. The leap required between 2030 and 2040 could trigger drastic regulatory measures; newbuildings will have to pick up the pace embracing electrification and alternative fuels; and existing ships will need retrofit solutions to avoid becoming obsolete.

Meanwhile, alongside our regulatory lobbying, Interferry remains active in calling for business-based solutions that can also blaze a path towards reducing emissions. In September, as co-hosts of a modal shift workshop at the European Shipping Summit in Brussels, we advocated an eco-bonus system incentivising hauliers to use short sea services on routes competing with road networks. More than 100 industry professionals and political representatives heard that such schemes in Spain and Italy have substantially increased goods transport via sea by offering a more viable economic and environmental option to congested overland highways.

There is always more than one way to reach our joint goal of improving efficiency and enabling safe, smart and competitive operations. And we will continue to promote the vital role ferry shipping plays for the global economies, now and in the future.

LASH FIRE testing BEV fire extinguishing methods.