BROWARD COUNTY, FL -- Broward County and its Port Everglades Department reached a $495,000 agreement today with Florida Power & Light (FPL) to explore providing electrical shore power (also called cold ironing) to all eight cruise ship berths at the world's third largest cruise homeport. The agreement gives FPL the go ahead to begin design services required to construct a new electrical sub-station and power distribution facilities at Port Everglades.
"When we first explored shore power back in 2009, few of the cruise ships that came to Port Everglades were equipped to connect at that time, so it was premature to make a multi-million dollar investment. Now is the time as today's cruise ships being built for energy efficiency and the lines are retrofitting their older fleet with shore power technology," said Port Everglades Chief Executive and Port Director Jonathan Daniels.
He added that the Port will seek state and federal cost-sharing opportunities such as grants, with the balance of the project shared between the Port and the cruise lines.
The approximately three-month preliminary design phase includes assessing the capability and capacity of the electrical grid to determining the necessary electrical infrastructure upgrades required to effectively deliver shore power to each of the Port's eight cruise berths.
The agenda item from today's Broward County Board of County Commissioners meeting can be found at https://broward.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=5476649&GUID=34479277-40CE-4C05-8779-B4D23A708DF4
About Port Everglades
As one of Florida's leading economic generators, Broward County's Port Everglades is the gateway for international trade and cruise vacations. Consistently ranked among the top three busiest cruise ports in the world, Port Everglades is also one of the nation's leading container ports and South Florida's main seaport for receiving petroleum products including gasoline, jet fuel and alternative fuels. The Port Everglades Department is a self-supporting Enterprise Fund of Broward County, Florida government with operating revenues of almost $103.5 million in Fiscal Year 2021 (October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021). It does not rely on local tax dollars for operations. The total value of economic activity related to Port Everglades is nearly $29 billion. More than 196,000 Florida jobs are impacted by the Port, including 10,389 people who work for companies that provide direct services to Port Everglades. For more information on Port Everglades, visit porteverglades.net or e-mail PortEverglades@broward.org.
DATE: March 15, 2022
Ellen Kennedy
Office of External Affairs and Cruise Services
954-468-3508
ekennedy@broward.org