Hybrid Port Energy, the operating company and a subsidiary of Becker Marine Systems, said the cruise ship now receives eight hours of uninterrupted supply during layovers.
'Contrary to reports published elsewhere, Hummel is working smoothly and at full capacity,' said Henning Kuhlmann, managing director of Becker Marine Systems. The LNG hybrid barge provided more than eight hours of clean electricity to AIDAsol on each of its previous two layovers at the HafenCity Terminal, on May 22 and June 23.
'We are extremely satisfied at our record of more than 40 MW of power over the longest possible period from the morning to the evening, which is equivalent to an entire supply cycle for AIDAsol in Hamburg,' Kuhlmann said.
By October, AIDAsol will have called at the HafenCity Terminal 15 times, receiving environmentally-friendly power from the LNG hybrid barge during its stay. In its first cruise season last year, the floating power plant used LNG systems to supply power during 11 calls.
'The inflexible restrictions remain a source of annoyance. The fact that we are still speaking of a test phase despite all the progress we have made in just one year of operation has less to do with our technical capabilities and is more a result of the restrictions imposed on us,' Kuhlmann said.
In July, for instance, the alternative system of a landside power plant will be subjected to a general certification procedure according to the International Electronic Consortium standard, conducted by Bureau Veritas. Although all components on the barge are already certified, including the transfer station, the ship-to-land cabling and the cable mobile, the components will now require another inspection together with AIDAsol before faultless power supply by the LNG hybrid barge can be certified.
'At the moment there are two different landside power supply systems available in Hamburg,' Kuhlmann added, 'so it would be fantastic to see larger numbers of cruise ships converting to this modern technology and making a valuable contribution to improving the air quality at the Port of Hamburg.'
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