Collaborative Optimization of Berth Allocation and Marine Energy Utilization for Low-Carbon Ports

Abstract

Ports, as key nodes for marine renewable energy consumption and integration with marine industries, are facing the dual pressures of low-carbon transformation and efficient energy utilization. To solve fossil fuel reliance and high carbon emissions from disconnected port berth scheduling and energy optimization, this study proposes a two-stage framework combining the improved Cuckoo Search Algorithm (ICSA) and Stackelberg game. In the first stage, a vessel-centric optimization framework is proposed, which integrates the time-of-use electricity pricing mechanism to coordinate ship operating decisions and port low-carbon objectives. The ICSA is employed to solve the low-carbon berth allocation problem, while synchronously generating the time-series load data of key port handling equipment. In the second stage, a demand response load matrix is established by fully exploiting the battery swapping characteristics of electric trucks and the cold load shifting capability of refrigerated containers. A tripartite Stackelberg game is then conducted among the port energy operator, distributed energy supplier, and port equipment aggregator to optimize energy pricing and multi-energy supply dynamically. Case studies show doubled shore power using vessels, 14% higher berth utilization, and 29.86% lower energy costs. Carbon emissions were significantly reduced, while the proportions of offshore natural gas and renewable energy saw notable increases. This study provides a new approach for the integration of marine energy into port operations, supporting the sustainable development of marine energy industries and the low-carbon transformation of coastal ports.

Keywords

Offshore renewable energy / Low-carbon port / Berth allocation problem / Cuckoo search algorithm / Stackelberg game / Energy transition / Demand response

Author Contributions

Q.G.: Writing—review & editing, Project administration, Formal analysis. L.G.: Writing—review & editing, Writing—original draft, Visualization, Software, Methodology. Z.B.: Writing—review & editing, Resources, Data curation. L.Z.: Writing—review & editing, Resources, Formal analysis, Project administration. J.L.: Writing—review & editing, Data curation. Y.S.: Writing—review & editing, Supervision, Methodology. Y.J.: Writing—review & editing, Methodology, Visualization, Software. X.G.: Writing—review & editing, Methodology.

Ethics Statement

Not applicable for studies not involving humans or animals.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable for studies not involving humans.

Data Availability Statement

Data will be made available on request.

Funding

This work was supported by the top-level project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.52077150), the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin (No.24JCYBJC00280), the Research and Reform Fund for Postgraduate Education and Teaching of Tianjin University of Technology (No.ZDXM2502), the science and technology projects of State Grid Tianjin Electric Power Company: “Electricity-Heat Integrated Energy System Flexibility and Reliability” (No.H20210063), “Research on Energy Global Optimization and Interactive Adjustment Technique for Urban Building Bodies Based on Multi-source Data Fusion” (No.KJ21-1-21).

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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