This year’s edition of Transport Week conference was held for the first time at the Pomeranian Science and Technology Park Gdynia (PPNT Gdynia), a hotbed of talent and creativity and a place for innovators creating modern products, services and initiatives.

The impact of the current and future status and policies of Europe in the transport sector, port investment strategies and electrification were discussed at the first day of Transport Week 2025 in Gdynia.

Pro-climate solutions are one of the leading topics in the maritime industry right now. For this reason, the Baltic Ports Organization decided to take a closer look at this issue. The second day of the event was fully devoted to the shore-side power, electrification and digital twin technology.

OPS and electrification – what does it really look like?

Hanno Bromeis (Hamburg Port Authority) talked about three key technical challenges for OPS implementation: availability of power/grid strength, service area/positioning of cables and quay wall situation/lateral space. He also presented the technical overview OPS solution in Tollerort Terminal (CTT), Eurogate Terminal (CTH) and Burchardkai (CTB). Commercial challenge was also mentioned in Hanno’s speach as a fossil fuel price still makes OPS a hard sell.

Mikołaj Magiełka (Gdynia Container Terminal) talked about GCT current plans: dismantling of the 500 kW diesel engines with power generator, installation of 15/0.4 kV transformers along with 15 kV power cables on cable reels, equipment of the cranes with 90kW diesel auxiliary generators for use in emergency situations, annual diesel consumption: 20,000 instead of the 420,000 litres and decrease of CO2 emissions by approx. 1 million kg per year.

During the discussion panel: ‘Many faces of port operations’ electrification – it’s not just about OPS’ Riina Palu (Saaresalu OÜ) shared her observations and thoughts on how hard it is to connect efiiciency, sustainability and resilience as they are a current and most important aim for the port industry. Dr hab. Ernest Czermański (University of Gdańsk) said that OPS is still a niche and that according to him, it will take about 20 to 25 years for the solution to actually work in a conventional way. Lawrence Henesey (Blekinge Institute of Technology) emphasized that since there are about 9 000 seaports in the world, including 1 400 in Europe and they are all pushed to go green, we should focus more on how to finance this brand new and very expensive green infrastructure.

Hypobatt project – a modular, fast and simple charging system to be implemented

Dr Yash Kotak (Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt) presented Hypobatt project (HYper POwered vessel BATTery charging system) which aim is to develop a modular, fast and simple multi-megawatt charging system for electric vessels. Initially, the ferry service between the North German ports of Norddeich and Norderney will be electrified. Further goals of the project are the standardization of the fast charging system for ferries as well as the development of new business models for battery-powered boats, which should make electric ferry operations safer, faster and more sustainable at other locations in the future.

Patryk Czerwiński (Wabtec) talked about the company he represents and their advanced technologies for industrial application supporting customers to increase efficiency and making the world greener and safer. He also focused on Hypobatt’s aims: short stay at berth, high battery capacity, interoperability, side charging, flexibility installation, ship movement compensation, automation: fast and reliable connection, emergency disconnection, high availability for charging and low maintenance effort.

George Kostalas (Rhoé) focused on application of digital twin technology for system optimization – shoreside and shipside in Hypobatt project. A Digital Twin is a virtual representation of a real physical system, mimicking its structure and behaviour. It is dynamically updated with data and helps driving the decision making. The speaker explained the cloud solution and showed 3 different scenarios of its methodology.