Bergen's Offshore Vessels Turn Shore Power Into Daily Port Practice
The Port of Bergen is showing why the next phase of shore power will be judged by connection rates, not only by installed equipment. Cruise ships attract attention, but Bergen's offshore vessels are becoming the quieter proof that OPS can move into daily port operations.
A LinkedIn post from Tor Mario Auran, Sustainable Lead at the Port of Bergen, captured one of the more useful shore-power statistics now emerging from Europe: in 2025, 63% of offshore vessels in Bergen connected to shore power. The port's goal for 2026 is 70%.
That figure deserves attention because it shifts the discussion away from ribbon-cutting and toward behaviour. Shore power only reduces emissions, local air pollution, noise and fuel consumption when vessels actually connect. Bergen's offshore segment shows the practical value of turning OPS into a normal berth routine, not an exceptional event.
The post also makes a necessary correction to the wider shore-power debate. Cruise ships often dominate the headlines because they are highly visible, power-hungry and politically sensitive in port cities. But offshore vessels, ferries, harbour craft and service vessels can create a different kind of progress: repeated calls, predictable berthing patterns and thousands of accumulated hours without auxiliary diesel engines running alongside.
Bergen is well placed to make that case. The port has built one of Europe's more mature shore-power environments. Port of Bergen states that it has 13 shore-power connection points dedicated to offshore vessels and five for cruise ships, with capacity for three cruise vessels to connect simultaneously. The cruise system is configured at 11 kV and 6.6 kV, 50 Hz and 60 Hz, with stated capacity of 16 MVA at 11 kV and 9.6 MVA at 6.6 kV. This is not an isolated plug at the quay. It is a multi-segment port energy system.
The port's offshore infrastructure is especially important because Bergen is not only a cruise destination. It is a working maritime hub with offshore traffic, service vessels, supply-chain activity and a city geography where local air quality matters. A ship connected to clean electricity at berth is not only reducing carbon dioxide. It is also reducing noise and local emissions in the waterfront area where port operations and city life sit close together.
Plug, the shore-power company owned by Eviny, is central to this story. Plug Bergen AS is a 50/50 joint venture between the Port of Bergen and Plug AS. Plug describes itself as developing, building and operating shore-power systems and reports more than 23,000 MWh of clean energy delivered in Bergen. Across its wider platform, Plug lists 27 active locations, more than 130 million kWh delivered and more than 100,000 tonnes of CO2 avoided. Those figures help explain why Bergen's example has become a reference point: the port has moved beyond proving the concept and into operating the system.
The supplier ecosystem also matters. The LinkedIn post tags Plug, Zinus, Eviny and ESPO. Zinus' cable-management technology is visible in the photograph accompanying the post. That detail is more than branding. Shore power depends on the choreography of grid power, converters, cable handling, vessel compatibility, operational staff and crew decisions. If the captain cannot connect quickly, safely and predictably, the infrastructure will be underused.
That is why the 63% connection rate is useful. It is a performance indicator that other ports should study. Installed capacity measures ambition. Connection rate measures operational adoption. A port can have shore power on paper and still lose most of the emissions benefit if vessels do not connect, if prices are misaligned, if procedures are slow, or if the berth does not match the fleet using it.
For Europe, this has policy relevance. The Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation requires TEN-T maritime ports to provide shore-side electricity for container and passenger ships by 2030 where demand thresholds are met. FuelEU Maritime also brings obligations for certain ships at berth. But Bergen's offshore example shows that the port-energy transition is wider than the regulatory minimum. Offshore vessels, service craft and other frequent callers can produce meaningful cumulative savings if the infrastructure is designed around their daily patterns.
There is a Mediterranean lesson here too. Many ports are now preparing cruise OPS, ferry charging, terminal electrification and grid upgrades. The Bergen case suggests that success should be measured by the share of eligible calls that connect, not simply by the number of berths equipped. For DTF, this is exactly where the conversation needs to go: from capital projects to connection discipline, from infrastructure availability to infrastructure use.
The 2026 target of 70% gives Bergen a useful next marker. If reached, it would show that shore power for offshore vessels can become an everyday operating standard in a busy port. That matters because the energy transition in shipping will not be won only by the largest ships or the most visible vessels. It will be built call by call, segment by segment, through ports that make clean power the easy operational choice.
