Dumping diesel: With a shift to electric ferries, a robot might soon be charging your ride

Nathan Pilling | Kitsap

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND – The distinctive drone of vessels in the Washington State Ferries fleet will soon begin to fade a bit.

“When we’re in battery mode, it’s going to be almost silent,” said Matt von Ruden, who heads up the agency’s vessel division, standing in one of the pilothouses onboard the diesel-guzzling ferry Puyallup. The vessel, one of three Jumbo Mark II-class ferries, is in line for a conversion that will allow the boat to run completely on electric power.

Sister ferries Tacoma and Wenatchee will get the same conversion treatment and a new, unnamed Olympic-class vessel will be built similarly over the next few years. New equipment will soon allow the vessels to charge automatically when they dock. The first of the system’s terminals will get electric infrastructure to allow for the charging. The moves add up to a significant shift for the agency, as it begins to transition away from diesel fuel toward electric power.

“Whether you just want a quieter ferry, whether you’re interested in protecting the orcas, whether you want to save money, save fuel, it just makes sense for everybody,” von Ruden said. “That’s why I think we’ve been able to make such traction in only three years here. It’ll be a really great showcase opportunity for the state of Washington I think.”

A charging robot

Assisting in some of the early work to power the three vessels is the Norwegian arm of the technology giant Siemens. Siemens is helping with upgrades to obsolete propulsion controls on the Jumbo Mark IIs and in conjunction with that work will design the hybrid systems that allow the boats to run either on electric power or on diesel if necessary.

Von Ruden said the agency is leaning toward a robotic solution onboard vessels that would, after a vessel docks, reach out and automatically plug into a socket on one of the wing walls that guide vessels in as they are docking.

During the 15-20 minute window when passengers and cars are unloading and loading, electricity would dump into the vessel’s batteries, and when it’s time to sail, the system would unplug and the battery cells would power the vessel’s propeller during the crossing. The process would occur each time the vessel docks.

Other vessels could follow, but the Jumbo Mark IIs, the state’s largest vessels and biggest fuel hogs, are in line to get the first hybrid conversions. Design work is underway and construction on the first conversion, on the Wenatchee, is expected to wrap up in late 2021. The other two conversions are projected to be done by 2024.

The three boats typically run on Bainbridge and Kingston crossings, the state’s two most heavily trafficked routes.

“Ferries burn a lot of fuel, 19.5 million gallons of fuel a year and 5 million of those gallons a year are from these three boats,” von Ruden said of the Jumbo Mark IIs. “It’s going to be a big deal.”

Ferries estimates converting those vessels will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 48,500 metric tons per year, equivalent to waving a wand and making more than 10,000 cars disappear. The three hybrid ferries are estimated to also cut the emissions of nitrogen oxide air pollution by about 185 metric tons a year.

The moves follow a 2018 directive by Gov. Jay Inslee to the state’s Department of Transportation to begin transitioning to a zero-carbon-emission ferry fleet.

“Converting the biggest, dirtiest ferries in the fleet is a huge milestone in our efforts to decarbonize the state and fulfill our obligation to help defeat climate change,” Inslee said in an announcement of funding for the vessels last month. “In addition to reducing emissions, moving to an all-electric ferry fleet will save taxpayers money on ferry operating costs, virtually eliminate engine noise and vibration that can hurt orca whales, and improve reliability of service.”

To get the work rolling, up to $35 million from the state’s $112.7 million settlement with Volkswagen following the automaker’s emissions cheating scandal will be directed toward work on the first vessel conversion. Crews will eventually rip out two of the four diesel engines on each boat and replace them with battery banks. Some parts will be salvaged but as part of the VW settlement, the diesel engines pulled from the Wenatchee will be destroyed so they don’t create pollution elsewhere, von Ruden said.

A new wave

Fuel savings, stable prices for electricity and savings on maintenance costs because of simplified vessels make the conversions attractive.

“Even after all these investments, we can save up to $60 million (over the life of the three Jumbo Mark IIs) depending on the price of fuel,” von Ruden said.

Electric ferries appear to be the wave of the future. They’re a logical candidate for electrification because their usage cycles are fairly predictable, said Don MacKenzie, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Washington.

“With ferries, you know it’s going back and forth on the same route, you can size the battery appropriately so you don’t have a lot of wasted capacity and can use that battery more effectively,” he said. “You can match the size and cost of the battery to the usage patterns of the vessel.”

This summer, Kitsap Transit began operating the first commercial hybrid electric ferry on Puget Sound, the Waterman, between Bremerton and Port Orchard. Across the Strait of Juan de Fuca, BC Ferries expects to put two battery-powered vessels into service in 2020 and announced earlier this month that it would be purchasing four more of the vessels. In Norway, Siemens helped to develop the world’s first electric-driven car ferry, the Ampere, which went into service in 2015.

Back in Washington, Ferries has already kicked off work on its first freshly-built hybrid-electric ferry. Engineering and design work has begun at Seattle shipbuilder Vigor Industrial, which expects to deliver the boat late in 2022. Roughly, Ferries expects the vessel to cost around $160 million.

Bainbridge-Seattle, Kingston-Edmonds and Bremerton-Seattle routes are initial priorities for the shift to electric power, and Ferries has begun conversations with utilities on both sides of the water – Puget Sound Energy, Seattle City Light and Snohomish PUD – to support those routes, von Ruden said.

PSE is still early on in the design process for the infrastructure improvements it’ll need to make to power vessels, said Andrew Lightfoot, a major accounts executive at the utility. On Bainbridge Island, Ferries has reported it’ll need 10 megawatts of capacity to charge vessels.

“We have an obligation to provide safe and reliable service for our customers,” Lightfoot said. “One way or another we’re going to accommodate them for what they need.”