What is the Charging Area?
A charging area is a consolidated section where ships use shore power to suffice their electricity requirements. Components such as pump communication, lights, and high-power refrigerators are recharged inside a shore charging area. Ships and bulk carriers can transfer the need for having an auxiliary onboard engine using a shore charging area. It decreases the volume of deadweight.
Significance of Charging Area in an E-commerce Shipping and Delivery
Sea freights can decrease the middle-mile shipping cost when they rely on shore charging areas.
- Middle-mile shipping charge reduction: A freight must have onboard charging solutions like multiple auxiliary engines to charge components and refrigerators, pump systems, or any other equipment that relies on chargeable batteries. The presence of several additional machines decreases the carrying capacity of a freight.
- The availability of a shore charging area allows freights to exclude the requirement of having such onboard auxiliary engines. It will enable a ship to carry more chargeable weight and make optimum use of the available volume. As sea freights can move products in higher quantities, the shipping cost during the mentioned phase decreases.
Prerequisites of Charging Area and How It Works
- Every port must have a separate area and multiple power connection equipment with a minimum of 480VAC+.
- A ship should ensure that its cable is in excellent condition.
- Before charging, a mediator should ensure that the resistance of the provided ship’s cable is at par with the resistance of the shore supply box.
Once the preliminary checks are completed and the mentioned requirements are fulfilled, a ship can leverage the shore charging area to do the needful.
Use Case with Charging Area
Some use cases with a charging area have been given below.
- A sea freight carrier charing their high voltage refrigerators after docking in Sydney.
- A sea carrier charging multiple pump equipment in Bangok after docking.
- A sea freight makes a halt in a Singaporean port to charge their pump equipment while traveling from the Philippines to Australia.