MTCC-Pacific Pilot Projects
1. Uptake of port energy efficient technologies and operations (Energy Audit and Ship Retrofitting)
The pilot-projects take into account the unique circumstances of Pacific Islands countries in terms of capacity to incorporate and implement international instruments and to progress energy efficiency in a shipping industry composed mainly by small domestic shipping companies and small ports heavily reliant on costly fossil fuels.
MTCC-Pacific is implementing energy management in the 7 targeted countries through energy audits to establish baseline data on ports energy consumption and provide advice on energy saving short and long-term projects to reduce GHG emissions from port operations.
Level 1 Energy Audits were conducted in the Solomon Islands (Honiara & Noro) ports, Samoa (Apia) port, Fiji (Suva) port, Tuvalu (Funafuti) port, Vanuatu (Port Vila & Luganville) ports, Kiribati (Betio) port and, Tonga (Nuku’alofa) port. Level 2 Energy Audit were only conducted in Fiji (Suva) port and Solomon Islands (Honiara & Noro) ports. Each visit is subject to a consultancy report establishing baseline data on energy consumption, energy savings projects and provide technical assistance to develop an energy policy and management plan and to use the data collection templates.
MTCC-Pacific had opted to retrofit a vessel in Fiji with solar system. The energy collected by the solar panel array would basically be a stand-alone solar power system, which will not be connected with other shipboard systems but will provide a DC output that can be connected to a DC load or via an inverter to an AC load for lighting during steaming or at ports. Thus tapping into clean and renewable energy provided by the sun, which is in abundance in Fiji. A request for proposal (RFP) was published internationally to invite solar companies in the region to bid for the contract.
2. Fuel consumption automated data collection and reporting
In this pilot-project, MTCC-Pacific will be to develop and disseminate to all PICTs a data collection template adapted to calculate GHG emissions from ports and shipping companies along with the ships EEDIs using the Energy Efficiency Appraisal Tool developed by IMO. A generic regulation for data collection will be also developed to assist countries in reinforcing the framework and ensuring the sustainability of the data collection and reporting system.
The second step will focus on targeted countries to:
- Have maritime administration, ship owners and port agree on the regionally adopted harmonized data collection and reporting system during the first national workshop – the outcome of the national workshop will formalize the agreement – an in-country focal point will be designated to liaise with MTCC-Pacific;
- Assist countries to implement the data collection and reporting system and for MTCC staff to facilitate the relationships between shipping companies and ports and the maritime administration through the focal point;
- Have MTCC-Pacific staff and SPC-SPREP collect and update relevant data and information during in-country visit and upload all information in the Transport Data Repository.
The third step will be a desk study of all data and information collected to produce a report on GHG emissions in the Pacific maritime transport sector. Consistent data from targeted shipping companies in targeted countries will allow an accurate estimation of GHG emissions in other countries using the vessel lists and domestic routes contained in SPC’s Regional Data Repository. The analysis will also inform countries on GHG emissions from their maritime transport sector and will ultimately support their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
This pilot-project will conducted taking into account the IMO Guidelines for Administration Data Verification Procedures and for electronic communication and standardized data reporting. MTCC-Pacific have received data from Fiji, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tuvalu and Samoa.