Port of Long Beach, Middle Harbor Redevelopment

System overhaul: Port of Long Beach, Middle Harbor Redevelopment; P2S Engineering

By Source: P2S Engineering August 9, 2012

Project name: Port of Long Beach, Middle Harbor Redevelopment

Location: Long Beach, Calif.

Firm name: P2S Engineering

Project type, building type: System overhaul, manufacturing

Project duration: 6 years

Project completion date: June 9, 2012

Project budget for mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection engineering only: $70 million

Engineering challenges

The Port’s middle harbor container shipping terminals were old, outdated, and designed for a past era of containerized shipping. To improve efficiency and meet current 21st century environmental standards, they had to be updated. This would allow the Port of Long Beach not only the opportunity to utilize new technologies, but also infrastructure upgrades that would improve the environment. As a result, once completed, the power infrastructure will have the capacity to fully support not only typical terminal needs (medium-voltage quay cranes, site lighting, and building distribution), but also greener port technologies such as shore-to-ship power and electrified rail-mounted gantry cranes in the container yard.

Solutions

P2S designed a reliable distribution system to serve present and future needs for the Middle Harbor. The completed mega-terminal will be served by a 112 MVA, 66-12 kV substation that will be constructed in stages over the next 10 years. The terminal also includes a 12 kV intermodal yard substation; (3) 6.6 kV shore power substations; (10) 480 V reefer substations; site distribution to facilitate power and communications to medium-voltage quay and stacker cranes, shore power outlets, reefer outlets, terminal site lighting, and buildings; and a state-of-the-art energy and power management solution for managing the increased demands of the electrified terminal. P2S is also advancing and standardizing shore-to-ship power solutions by leading the development of an international IEC/ISO/IEEE standard for shore-to-ship power. This ensures that the shore-to-ship power system at the Middle Harbor is state-of-the-art. It will also serve as an example for other terminals nationwide to follow.