The major Spanish ports have less than four years to face one of the most important changes in their energy infrastructure: to ensure that certain ships can turn off their engines when docked and obtain electricity directly from land. The deadline set by the European Union is January 1, 2030, although the obligation does not affect all ports or all ships equally.
The system is called Onshore Power Supply (OPS). Instead of keeping auxiliary engines running to produce the electricity they need on board, ships can connect to the land grid while at the dock, reducing pollutant emissions, greenhouse gases, and noise.
Spain already has projects underway in some of its main port locations. The transformation requires much more than installing a plug: substations, power lines, transformers, frequency converters, and connections capable of providing several megawatts to a single ship are needed.
Not all ports are obligated
The European regulation on infrastructure for alternative fuels, known as AFIR, establishes the objectives that member states must meet.
The obligation is concentrated on seaports belonging to the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) that exceed certain traffic levels.
In the case of container ships of more than 5,000 gross tons, the threshold is set at more than 100 annual calls on average over the previous three years. For roll-on/roll-off passenger ships and high-speed passenger vessels of that size, the threshold is over 40 calls; for other passenger ships, more than 25.
When those limits are exceeded, the port must have sufficient electricity supply from land to serve at least 90% of the corresponding calls by 2030, with the conditions and exceptions provided for by the regulations.
This means that belonging to the TEN-T does not automatically imply that all docks of a Spanish port must be electrified. The traffic and the type of ships that each facility receives determine the scope of the obligation.
Barcelona, Valencia, Algeciras, or Bilbao are in the European network
Spain has numerous seaports integrated into the RTE-T. Among them are some of the largest in the country, such as Algeciras, Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao, Cartagena, Huelva, Las Palmas, Palma, Gijón, or A Coruña, in addition to other ports belonging to the global network.
The list alone, however, does not allow us to assert that all are subject to exactly the same investments: it will be necessary to check if they reach the thresholds of calls established by AFIR and what categories of ships they concentrate.
The European obligation also coincides with the objectives of the Spanish port system. The Strategic Framework of State Ports sets the goal for 2030 to achieve a broad electrification of the ports based on demand.
Spain is already building the plugs
Some investments allow us to get an idea of the scale of the transformation.
In Valencia, an OPS project for passenger ships is underway with a budget of 13.72 million euros. The projected infrastructure will allow supplying up to 16 MVA to a cruise ship or 4 MVA to a ferry and even includes a converter to work with frequencies of 50 and 60 Hz.
Barcelona is also developing its own electrification plan. The Port Authority began with pilot projects aimed at container ships and ferries, within a broader roadmap to provide electrical supply to different classes of ships.
Seville, for its part, received authorization in 2025 for an investment of 4.035 million euros linked to the increase of the power needed for OPS at the Tablada docks and the Cuarto Dock. The estimate made for these actions placed the total power needs at 33.7 MW.
The projects extend across different port authorities and have state and European funding. The FEDER program 2021-2027 reserves resources for actions related to energy efficiency, renewables, and new electrical supply infrastructure for docked ships.
The ship will also have to be prepared
Building the infrastructure on land only solves half of the problem. To use OPS, the ship itself must have compatible equipment that allows it to receive electricity from the port.
There enters the second great European regulation that converges in 2030: FuelEU Maritime. From that year, certain container ships and passenger vessels of more than 5,000 gross tons must use shore power when docked in the affected ports or resort to another zero-emission technology that allows them to meet their energy needs at the dock.
The result will be a double transformation. Ports will have to provide the infrastructure and ships must be able to use it.
The decisive date will be January 1, 2030. By then, a relevant part of the major Spanish ports will have to have converted their docks into points capable of supplying amounts of electricity comparable to those demanded by large industrial facilities.