FOLLOWUP: 14 months after Terminal 5’s modernized north berth opened, shore power remains unused

One month ago, in the latest quarterly update on Terminal 5 in West Seattle, the Northwest Seaport Alliance reported that shore-power use at T-5 was imminent. But that month has passed, and it hasn’t happened. As noted here back in November, first the delay was attributed to labor negotiations; then it was blamed on a technical problem. Now, according to NWSA spokesperson Melanie Stambaugh, “We are one of many stakeholders involved with the shore power component of terminal operations. We believe that the infrastructure is ready to go at this point, but understand there are some internal administrative matters that still must be addressed on our tenant side. We are hopeful that we will see a ship plugged in before the end of the month, but currently issues remain outside of our control.” Shore power was a much-discussed, much-awaited feature of the half-billion-dollar T-5 overhaul; its use means that ships wouldn’t have to burn fuel to power their generators while in port.

4 Replies to "FOLLOWUP: 14 months after Terminal 5's modernized north berth opened, shore power remains unused"

  • flimflam March 3, 2023 (4:46 pm)

    You’d think with all the delays already the “tenant” side would have their stuff worked out…

  • Bill March 3, 2023 (5:06 pm)

    You know , if the seaport alliance had to pay a large sum of money for every day a ship was there running it’s generator, we’d’’be had this fixed fourteen months ago.   

  • Jim March 3, 2023 (5:08 pm)

    And yet they’re still collecting a portion of property taxes for this work

  • Azimuth March 3, 2023 (8:04 pm)

    I have an extension cord they can borrow

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