Supervisor:
Josep M. Guerrero

Co-Supervisor:
Juan V. Carlos

Najmeh Bazmohammadi

Assessment Committee:
Amin Hajizadeh  (Chair)

Prof. Olav Bjarte Fosso olav.fosso@ntnu.no

Ass. Prof Nursyarizal Mohd Nor,University Technology Petronas, nursyarizal_mnor@utp.edu.my

Moderator:

 Sanjay Chaudhary

Abstract:

The emissions of the maritime sector caused by ship transportation and other fossil fuel sources pose a threat to the environment and human health. It drives an increasing interest in adopting electrification solutions to revolutionize the conventional maritime energy-intensive and highly polluting industry. Accordingly, this thesis is one of the pioneering attempts to implement a seaport microgrid and carbon capture shore power system of cold ironing at a port dedicated to sustainability while remaining competitive.

 

However, the technological and research gaps of the conventional port scheduling paradigm constitute challenges in a synergy between the two prominent maritime electrification systems of seaport microgrids and cold ironing. The incorporation of cold ironing into seaport operations introduces new challenges to handling workflow and the potential impact of such integration has not yet been quantitatively addressed. Developing strategic management to improve port performance is always an issue for the port operators. This research gap motivated this study to develop an integrated operation and energy management framework by executing forecasting and optimization techniques for coordinating these technologies toward the emission neutrality goal.

 

This Ph.D. research makes several novel contributions. It commences with a comprehensive review of the critical aspects of cold ironing technology and seaport microgrids, highlighting the research gap. Significantly, it identifies and addresses the range of factors influencing the varying demand for cold ironing in seaport microgrids, necessitating the development of advanced forecasting techniques. Furthermore, the work tackles a crucial challenge: the integration of cold ironing with limited capacities increases the complexity of existing seaside port operations, specifically the berth allocation problem (BAP) and quay crane allocation problem (QCAP), prolonging the waiting time for ships to be served at berths. To address this, an innovative seaside operational optimization model is proposed, developing the cooperative scheduling of BAP, QCAP, and cold ironing assignment problems (CIAP). Notably, to provide energy flexibility while maintaining cost-effectiveness, the research introduces a novel bilevel optimization approach as an energy management system (EMS) framework. This EMS framework enables the coordinated integration of cold ironing with the seaport microgrid concept, optimizing energy scheduling and operational efficiency