With more than 100 ships docking in Portland last year, Maine is looking to cut pollution from diesel fumes by electrifying the downtown port and others in the state.

Depending on the project that’s selected, the power grids could be pressed into service to generate a significant amount of electricity. Powering as many as three ships in Portland alone could require the same amount of energy it would take to light up to 25,000 homes.

To figure out the details, Maine is launching a $1 million study to determine the scope and cost of electrifying ports in Eastport, Portland, Searsport and Rockland.

The state Department of Transportation received the money from the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency to determine how much pollution the ships emit, how to reduce emissions and how the electric grid could handle greater demand for power.

The “primary focus” will be on the Eastport, Portland and Searsport ports. Rockland also will be studied because it’s a popular destination for small coastal cruise ships and will be a “case study for similar shore power projects” in Maine, the Department of Transportation said in an announcement this month.

The study will be a first step toward applying for more money, if it’s available, to finance port improvements.

“This is good work for us from the planning side so we’re ready when funding becomes available,” said Matthew Burns, deputy director in the office of freight and business logistics at the state Department of Transportation.

“We’ll at least know what’s needed, if there’s enough juice in the overall grid.”

The demand for electricity at the port of Portland would be significant, with three docking sites off Thames Street cited as possibilities.

Avangrid Inc., the parent company of Central Maine Power that services Portland, said electricity demand for a maximum of three ships powered at the same time would be 25 megawatts, the equivalent of lighting 20,000 to 25,000 homes.

“We have to think carefully about grid capacity and what’s needed to upgrade the grid, to get power to the ships and wharves,” Burns said.

Officials “don’t yet understand how to foot the bill for these improvements,” but Maine would look at ports internationally to figure out ways to pay for the grid upgrade, he said. The study also will point to other methods to provide power, such as microgrids, which are small-scale power systems.

Last year, 118 ships visited Portland with an average docking time of eight hours, or nearly 1,000 hours of running onboard generators to power lights, heating and air conditioning, elevators and galleys on the ships, the state Department of Transportation said.

“It’s like running a large hotel,” Burns said.

That level of energy consumption is equal to more than 4,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

Shore power can reduce the emissions by up to 98%, the state said.

ESTIMATING COSTS

Electrifying the ports could be costly, depending on the scope of the work.

Avangrid has offered three possibilities for Portland. One proposal, requiring less than one year of work, would supply 2 megawatts using current distribution capacity at a cost of about $200,000.

That’s the maximum that can be supported by the current electrical system, CMP said.

A second option would be to build a substation with the required distribution circuits for up to $60 million to support 9 MW and 14 MW berths. The project would take about 10 years.

The third and costliest project would be to find a site to build a substation and distribution circuits with a transmission line. Expedited over about seven years, the project would cost about $346 million.

CMP said it’s already advocating for a new substation to support growing electricity load, which could take up to 10 years to review and complete.

Avangrid was not asked to provide similar estimates for Searsport and Rockland, said Jon Breed, a CMP spokesperson.

“At the request of the city, CMP prepared a technical analysis of the Portland-area power grid so that decision-makers can begin to consider cost ranges and timelines of different shore power options,” he said.

The Eastport project would be run through Versant Power, which services that area. Spokeswoman Judy Long said Versant has not established whether costs were estimated for the port at Eastport.

If costs were estimated, the information would be for the benefit of the port and not be publicly available, she said.

PORTLAND COMPROMISE UNFINISHED

Portland voters in 2022 rejected a ballot measure that would have required cruise ships to get permits to disembark passengers, and no more than 1,000 people would have been allowed to disembark ships each day.

A compromise set aside the proposed passenger limit and instead would have required the city to install shoreside electrical power stations for cruise ships by 2028.

It also sought to impose a $2.50 per passenger charge on cruise ships to help defray the cost of the power stations and implement a shoreline power study.

And it would have established a task force proposing recommendations to the City Council on waterfront labor and shoreside power and to study the economic impacts of the cruise ship industry.

Jessica Grondin, the city’s spokesperson, said Wednesday in an email that the proposals did not involve the city and nothing was adopted by the voters or the City Council “to bind us to this at that time.”

Twenty-nine ports around the world offer at least one cruise berth with shore power, the Department of Transportation said.

Another 36 are expected to have similar facilities by 2026. To highlight the scope of the issue, the state said Royal Caribbean reported visiting more than 1,000 destinations globally in 2023.

Stephen Singer — 207-689-2977 ssinger@metln.org