Portsmouth International Port in the United Kingdom has completed its first commercial shore power connection for a cruise vessel, marking a step forward in the port's electrification efforts and adding to a small but growing list of UK ports equipped to supply grid power to berthed ships.

Virgin Voyages' cruise ship Valiant Lady plugged into the port's shore power system, the port announced in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday. The connection enables the vessel to draw electricity from the local grid while berthed rather than running its auxiliary engines.

The port also indicated it would soon achieve another milestone: two vessels connected to shore power simultaneously. Brittany Ferries' Guillaume de Normandie was scheduled to use the system alongside Valiant Lady, a first for the facility.

Shore power, also known as cold ironing or onshore power supply (OPS), allows ships to switch off their auxiliary engines while at berth and draw electricity from the local grid instead. The technology is widely recognized for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter, as well as lowering noise levels and improving air quality in surrounding port communities.

Portsmouth described the planned dual connection as a significant milestone for the UK maritime sector and a step toward operating the shore power system at its full capacity.

The multi-berth shore power project received funding from the UK Department for Transport and Innovate UK, and aligns with broader UK efforts under the Clean Maritime Plan to cut emissions from the domestic maritime sector as part of the country's legally binding target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The port had commissioned the system the previous month.

Shore power infrastructure has been gaining traction at ports across Europe and North America as the maritime industry faces increasing regulatory pressure to reduce emissions. At the international level, the International Maritime Organization has adopted a revised greenhouse gas strategy targeting net-zero emissions from international shipping by or around 2050. The European Union has moved to require shore power availability at major ports under its Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR), with obligations phasing in from 2030 for maritime ports in the trans-European transport (TEN-T) network. Ports and operators investing in OPS infrastructure now are positioning ahead of these requirements, though the actual emissions benefits depend on the carbon intensity of the grid electricity supplied.