Reducing Fuel Consumption Using Flywheel Battery Technology for Rubber Tyred Gantry Cranes in Container Terminals

Abstract

Flywheel Energy Storage System (FESS) is used as an energy regeneration system to help with reducing peak power requirements on RTG cranes that are used to load or unload container ships. Nevertheless, with the use of FESS, Port Operator can deploy undersized generator for new RTG as this will further reduce fuel consumption. This paper presents the investigation of the amount of energy and fuel consumption that can be reduced in Rubber Tyred Gantry (RTG) cranes in container terminals by the use of simulation. In addition, Variable Speed Generator is integrated to the simulation-hybridized RTG. Simulation results reveal that the total energy saving exceeded 30% relatively to conventional RTG. A hardware-in-loop system is introduced for the purpose of validating the simulation results. The hardware components procured include a FESS, a Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) and brake resistors.