Harbour Craft Electrification and Standardisation: Getting It Right

Standardisation when thoughtfully applied, brings efficiency and scalability. But rigid standardisation can lead to over-engineering, excessive costs, and wasted resources when not adapted to real-world conditions.

The Push for Standardising Electrified Harbour Crafts

Electrifying harbour crafts is widely seen as a necessary step in reducing maritime emissions, aligning with both national and international mandates. At the same time, there is a strong push for standardisation—an effort to streamline vessel designs, operational frameworks, and supporting infrastructure. The prevailing assumption is that these two objectives should go hand in hand, with standardisation offering economies of scale and interoperability that can accelerate electrification.

However, the way standardisation is being approached today risks undermining the very efficiencies it aims to create. The question isn't wether electrification and standardisation can coexist—they can. The question is how they should be implemented to ensure that standardisation supports, rather than hinders, the transition to electrified harbour crafts.

This article focuses specifically on battery-electric solutions and does not cover other pathways to zero-emissions, such as hybrid systems and alternative fuels.

Current Industry Thinking on Standardisation and Electrification

The prevailing industry approach assumes that standardising vessel categories and charging infrastructure will create interoperability and economies of scale, making electrification more viable at scale. The idea is that by defining reference vessel designs and uniform energy solutions, owners and operators can confidently transition to electrified fleets, while ports can develop standardised charging infrastructure that serves all vessels within a category.

While this approach appears logical, it is built on simplified assumptions that do not align with operational realities. It treats standardisation as a universal solution rather than a tool that must be adapted to different contexts. The key flaw lies in what is being standardised and how it is applied.

Where This Approach Falls Short

The assumption that vessels within the same category can adopt a single standardised electric design ignores the operational diversity that exists even within seemingly similar vessel types. Harbour crafts vary not just in size and function but in duty cycles, energy demands, regulatory constraints, and commercial priorities. Standardisation, when applied rigidly, leads to misaligned vessel configurations, oversized battery requirements, and inefficient charging infrastructure.

A common industry practice is to electrify a representative vessel within a category and then assume that the same design specifications will work for all vessels of that type. This results in over-engineered solutions that add unnecessary weight and cost in an attempt to cover every possible use case. In reality, vessel operations differ significantly even within the same category, meaning a standardised design is often too much for some, too little for others, and just right for none.

On the infrastructure side, the one-size-fits-all mindset extends to charging solutions, assuming a uniform approach can serve all vessels in a category. However, the charging needs of harbour crafts are dictated by their specific deployment patterns, which vary across operational zones within a port. Without tailoring infrastructure planning to actual energy consumption and vessel movement patterns, charging networks risk being either underutilised or inadequate for real-world operations.

The result? A system that prioritises standardisation for its own sake rather than aligning with operational realities, leading to inefficiencies that counteract the intended benefits of electrification.

A More Effective Approach

If electrification and standardisation are to work together, the focus must shift from imposing uniformity to structuring standardisation around operational realities. The key is understanding what should be standardised and at what level to balance efficiency and scalability.

Broadly, standardisation efforts can be considered across four key areas: vessel category classification, design processes, infrastructure planning, and operational frameworks.

• Standardising vessel categories should follow a cluster-based approach, where vessels are grouped based on shared operational needs rather than broad category definitions. Instead of forcing all vessels in a category to fit a single design, standardisation should occur within naturally occurring operational clusters, ensuring designs remain relevant to real-world use.

  
  

• Standardising the design process should focus on metrics and flexibility rather than rigid specifications. Setting clear performance benchmarks—such as energy efficiency, range, and charging compatibility—ensures consistency while still allowing for design innovation. A process-driven approach ensures that standardisation enhances, rather than restricts, technological advancements.

  
  

• Standardising infrastructure should align with vessel clustering since electrified vessels and charging infrastructure are inherently linked. Planning infrastructure at the cluster level ensures that charging solutions are developed in a way that matches fleet growth forecasts, energy demand projections, and operational constraints—resulting in better localisation and improved grid integration.

  
  

• Standardising operational frameworks should focus on protocols for communication and data gathering across an entire port. This would enable better coordination in managing vessel operations, optimising energy demand, and implementing standardised safety response mechanisms and procedures.

Singapore Port (for illustration): Natural operational clusters enable targeted, localised standardisation.

By applying targeted standardisation, this approach allows electrification to scale without compromising efficiency—ensuring standardisation serves as an enabler, rather than an obstacle, to this transition.

Conclusion

Electrification and standardisation are not opposing forces, but their integration requires a more thoughtful approach than what is currently being pursued. Standardisation, when applied too rigidly, risks creating inefficiencies rather than solving them. By aligning standardisation efforts with real-world operational diversity, the industry can achieve both scalability and efficiency without unnecessary over-engineering.

A shift toward cluster-based standardisation, performance-driven design metrics, and infrastructure planning that reflects actual usage patterns will ensure that electrification is both practical and scalable. The challenge is not whether standardisation should happen, but how to make it work in a way that supports, rather than obstructs, maritime decarbonisation.

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This post has laid out the broad framework for a better approach. In upcoming articles, we will explore each element in more detail—breaking down how vessel standardisation, design flexibility, and infrastructure planning can be applied effectively to real-world electrification efforts.