As ports move to cut emissions at berth, shore power — cold ironing — lets a vessel shut down its auxiliary engines and draw electricity from the quay. The cable that links the shore pedestal to the vessel switchboard is one of the most heavily worked components in the whole system, and it is usually the part that fails first if it was specified like an ordinary shipboard cable.
What a shore connection cable actually endures
A shore connection cable is handled more in a week than most shipboard cable is handled in a year. It is uncoiled on a quay, dragged across concrete, plugged into a socket, energised, de-energised, unplugged and coiled again. In between it sits in sun, salt spray, rain and, in some ports, vehicle traffic.
Four loads act on it at once:
- Continuous current — typically 1–8 MVA per vessel connection, so several hundred amperes at low voltage
- Repeated flexing — every vessel call cycles the cable through its full bend radius
- Weather — UV, salt and temperature extremes on an open quay
- Mechanical abuse — tension, abrasion and occasional crushing
Construction choices that follow from that duty
Conductor. Class 5 fine-strand tinned copper. A class 2 conductor is stiffer and will work-harden at the bend points; the strands eventually break inside the insulation, which is invisible until the cable fails a test.
Insulation. EPR, for cold-bend performance and flexibility at low ambient temperature. XLPE is acceptable where the cable is not repeatedly coiled, but EPR is the usual choice for a cable that is handled daily.
Sheath. Extra-heavy-duty SHF2 or CPE, UV stabilised. Untreated compounds chalk and crack under UV, and the damage is not obvious until the sheath fails a test or admits water.
Voltage class. Low-voltage cold ironing at 0.6/1kV, or a high-voltage connection at 6.6kV or 11kV with a screened construction and a metallic screen rated for the prospective fault current.
Standards that apply
Construction follows IEC 60092-353, with flexible cable test methods from IEC 60245. Flame propagation is tested to IEC 60332-1-2 and, where the cable runs in a bundle, IEC 60332-3. High-voltage variants follow the test principles of IEC 60840. Where the cable forms part of the vessel’s installation, a classification-society type approval is normally required.
Five questions to settle before ordering
- What is the supply voltage and the maximum continuous current at the berth?
- Is the cable coiled by hand, or wound on a powered reel under tension?
- What is the drum or reel diameter, and does it satisfy the cable’s minimum bending radius?
- How many cores, and are pilot or control cores required for the interlock?
- Which connector standard does the port and the vessel fleet use?
Where shore power cable sits in the range
The ship shore power connection cable page sets out the construction and the voltage options. For the fixed installation on the quay, the marine power cable range covers the armoured constructions normally used in a port duct. If the vessel also needs an on-board cable for the same connection, the special marine cable range covers reeling and trailing duty.
Send the berth voltage, current, reel diameter and connector type through the enquiry form and we will confirm the construction and the drum length before the order is placed.
For the connection itself, the ship shore power connection cable covers the reeling and trailing duty described above, and the 0.6/1kV EPR insulated marine power cable covers the fixed quay-side run from the substation to the pedestal. Where the berth also carries a control or interlock circuit, the shielded marine control cable matches the same voltage class.