Electrification sweeps container crane power market

Replacing a diesel generator with VAHLE's electric RTG conversion saves up to roughly 300 tonnes of CO2 per crane per year — and that single number explains why the container crane cable, festoon and power supply market is moving decisively toward electrification in both newbuilds and retrofits.

The commercial logic is tightening from two directions at once. Jaroslaw Warzecha, Director of the Ports Business Unit at VAHLE, said: "Rising diesel prices and volatile energy costs are increasing the economic pressure on port operators. At the same time, regulatory requirements are intensifying the need for low-emission terminal processes. Electrification is thus increasingly becoming not just a question of efficiency, but a key prerequisite for sustainable terminal structures."

Savings claims of this kind rest on operational profiles VAHLE itself qualifies — "up to" and "depending on the operational profile" — but the retrofit market is nonetheless demonstrably buoyant. Heavy-duty steel festoons remain the popular choice for older ship-to-shore (STS) cranes, while modular enclosed energy chains are gaining ground. The industry is also embedding sensors and IoT functionality inside cables to track wear, predict failures and cut unplanned downtime.

Who is shipping what?

Six vendor programmes illustrate where the market is heading:

• HyprC Systems Corp. — the Aegis Critical Energy Defence subsidiary has launched a next-generation high-C-rate battery platform aimed at ports, AI data centres and hybrid nuclear systems, backed by a multi-year investment programme and research collaboration with McMaster University in Canada.
• Cavotec — the Swedish group's PowerAccESS mobile battery energy storage system, announced in May 2026, replaces diesel generators one-to-one on RTG cranes during block changes.
• Conductix-Wampfler — completed the heaviest motorised festoon retrofit in its history at Terminal des Flandres, Dunkirk, and signed a fresh framework agreement with APM Terminals.
• Kuenz — installed six battery-hybrid Freerider RTGs at Norfolk Southern's intermodal terminal in Austell, USA.
• Tratos Group — launched the TratosFlex-RTG-RF high-visibility fluorescent reeling cable, shown at TOC 2025.
• Yaskawa — pairs lithium-ion batteries with supercapacitors for RTGs and container carriers.

Can batteries handle STS-grade power swings?

HyprC thinks so, and its framing is blunt. "Modern ports experience violent power swings from equipment such as ship-to-shore cranes, AGVs, reach stackers and yard equipment," the Canada-headquartered company said. Its platform is designed for rapid opportunity charging between shifts and stable voltage under heavy lift loads.

The company claims lower lifetime cost versus diesel and conventional batteries, 24/7 operation support, and help meeting decarbonisation and air-quality targets. "For port operators, this combination offers the potential for reduced operating costs, increased asset utilisation and improved regulatory compliance," it said — a summary that promises much and, so far, offers no third-party performance data to verify it.

Cavotec's PowerAccESS is more concrete on specification. It uses LiFePO4 chemistry for safety and service life, scales from 62 to 494 kWh for block-change, hybrid or full battery RTG operation, and is built rugged for marine environments with zero local emissions and low noise. It can also integrate into existing cranes as a hybrid solution.

Laurent Dupuis, VP Product Management at Cavotec, said: "PowerAccESS represents another important step in Cavotec's commitment to supporting the transition towards more sustainable and efficient port operations. The system has been designed to give crane manufacturers and terminal operators a flexible and scalable solution that reduces emissions while ensuring reliable performance in demanding operating conditions."

What did the Dunkirk retrofit involve?

Conductix-Wampfler's Terminal des Flandres project set the engineering bar high. The German company retrofitted one motorised festoon system — the heaviest it has ever engineered — including control panel replacement, and swapped out a non-motorised heavy-duty festoon on a second STS crane.

The scope covered crane beam extension, festoon pre-assembly at the quay, scaffolding and crane preparation. Cable work was substantial: both cable packages weighed roughly 50 kg per metre across 35 power and control cables. The customer's constraint was hard — crane downtime not exceeding four days — and Conductix-Wampfler completed both retrofits, including commissioning, within four weeks.

The company also signed a framework purchase agreement with APM Terminals covering RTG electrification products and services. Over the past 14 years it has supplied APM Terminals with 413 energy supply systems for eRTGs, new and retrofitted, plus 116 battery systems — evidence that electrification programmes at major terminal operators are multi-cycle commitments, not pilots.

How do battery RTGs actually cut diesel out?

Kuenz's six Freerider RTGs at Austell each carry a fully electric lithium-ion hybrid energy storage system charged by shore power plus recovered braking and load-lowering energy. Diesel-engine carbon emissions are eliminated entirely compared with conventional RTGs. Shore power comes via cable reels or conductor rail, and Kuenz notes the latter enables the 100% electric hybrid system with lower, constant power demand that "significantly reduces the infrastructure costs of the conductor rail itself."

VAHLE, which presented terminal electrification solutions at TOC Europe 2026, is pushing its modular TriMotion Compact system for RTGs alongside the VAHLE Battery Storage System, an immersion-cooled modular buffer that trims grid peaks and stabilises power flows. Warzecha's 300-tonne CO2 figure comes with his own caveat — it depends on the operational profile — but he argues decarbonisation is now "not only technically feasible, but also economically scalable and operationally integrable."

Tratos is attacking a different cost centre: accidental cable damage. Its TratosFlex-RTG-RF cable, highlighted at TOC 2025, carries reflective stripes that shine under minimal light and a fluorescent compound that glows for up to eight hours without power — roughly a full night shift. Fewer strikes mean longer cable life and less downtime. The medium-voltage EPR-insulated cable also integrates control, signalling and bus functions.

Yaskawa, which installed its first electric wharf container crane in 1967, reports more than 1,300 quay gantry cranes, 2,600 RTGs and 200 container carriers supplied, mostly in Singapore, India and China. Its lithium-ion-plus-supercapacitor hybrid and remote-control systems respond, the company says, to Asian ports' demand for safety, efficiency and better operator working conditions.

With framework agreements extending past a decade and battery capacity now scaling toward half a megawatt-hour per unit, crane electrification looks set to keep converting diesel-dependent terminals — provided vendors' cost and emissions claims survive independent measurement.