BY PEPPER FISHER

Port Angeles – As we reported in August, the Port of Port Angeles applied for a $10 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to electrify its operations at the dock by replacing old diesel equipment with EVs, and by modernizing its shore power capabilities.

It was announced by US Rep. Derek Kilmer’s office on Tuesday that the Port was just awarded $9.4 million through the EPA’s Clean Ports Program to do just that. With that infusion of cash, along with the $1.5 million from the Port and WSDOT, the $10.5 million project is now fully funded.

Made possible by the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, the funds will support the Port’s Marine Terminal One cargo operations. The Port’s Katherine Frazier explains.

“So, we’ve got some old forklifts, and when I say old, I mean old like from the 1970s. So it’s equipment that kind of needs an update. Anyway, so as we look to replace this equipment, why not go electric and do the right thing for the environment? And we’re also looking as what’s called a reach stacker. And a reach stacker is kind of like a smaller version of some of the big cranes that you see at ports. So we’re really excited about that, because it’ll actually not only help us reduce emission’s, but also help us diversify the types of cargo that the port can handle.”

The other planned electrical upgrade is to the Port’s shore power. Shore power allows ships, while they’re docked at a terminal, to hook up to electric power rather than run their engines to power their onboard ship operations.

“So, shore power is kind of a funny thing. They’re kind of like different phone chargers. There are a lot of different shore power cables and plugs that different ships and different ports use. And there is a move to provide a lot of different adaptable plugs that can be used by different ships, and basically make it so that any ship that comes in can connect to power. The port’s equipment is really, really old and we can only accommodate one type of plug.”

Frazier told us in August the Port wasn’t expecting to hear if they had won this grant until sometime in December, so the good news came early.