SHIPPING PORT CASE STUDY

A Multi-System Solution Powers an Urban Shipping Port

Shipping freight by sea is no small feat. Container ships measure in the hundreds of meters in length and the largest has a capacity of 22,000 TEUs (that is, it can carry 22,000 twenty foot containers). This is a massive increase over earlier container ships – in fact, it is estimated that the average size of a container ship has doubled since the year 2000.

In response, shipping ports have had to get bigger as well. Heavy equipment like cranes and and ship loaders and off-loaders allow containers to be moved around between ships, trains and trucks.

Of course, all that machinery requires a lot of power. And if there’s an outage? Massive quantities of goods stop moving.

Luckily, with Trinity Power, reliable backup power is a phone call away – no matter how big the requirements.

The Client: A Long-Standing Electrical Contractor

As Western Canada’s largest in-house fiber optics service provider, this client already has bragging rights. Add in that they have been planning and executing full-scope, complex industrial and residential projects for 90 years, and that puts this electrical contractor, located in Vancouver’s Lower Mainland, in the major leagues for both specialized training and experience.

The Challenge: A High Voltage Splice on an Electrical Grid

Our client was doing a high voltage splice on the electrical grid at a shipping port located in a downtown core. In order to ensure the port would remain operational if there was an outage while they were doing their work, they needed backup systems at several points along the ring, providing a total of 3MW of power.

No single local vendor had all of the equipment necessary for such a large undertaking, so our client came to Trinity Power looking for a one-stop, full-service turnkey solution.

Our Approach: Four Power Systems, Three Vendor Partners, One Turnkey Solution

Reaching out to our trusted vendor partners, the Trinity team was able to locate the equipment necessary to create the four temporary power systems our client required for their project.

Working with three different vendor partners, Trinity sourced two 500kW 600V generators, two 500kW 480V generators and a 1MW 600V generator. We also supplied two 3000A I-line panels, two 1200A I-line panels, two 600-480V transformers, and four automatic resistive load banks ranging from 500kW 480V to 1MW 480V. Finally, to connect the equipment in each system, we provided 4/0 single conductor camlok cables with tails and cable mats for safety.

Each of the four systems included a generator that fed into an auto transformer which was connected to an I-line panel. This panel fed the site load as well as the load bank, ensuring the generator would always run at optimal levels.

In addition to equipment, Trinity provided startup and commissioning assistance, sending our temporary power specialist who had designed the system to the site to ensure things went smoothly.

The Result: Smooth Sailing Throughout the Project

As a result of our unique power broker model, and our highly trained temporary power specialists, Trinity was able to provide the equipment and expertise of multiple companies along with the simplicity of being a single point of contact.

Our client was able to turn their focus to other aspects of the project and to complete their scope of work secure in the knowledge that the port would be able to continue operating normally.