Cold-ironing lets a docked ship shut down its auxiliary engines and run hotel loads on shore power instead — but the regulations arriving this decade ask ports to deliver megawatt-class power at berths that were never wired for it. A non-flammable VSB buffer can absorb that demand at the dock, so the shore-power connection gets sized to the port's grid, not to the ship's peak draw.
The EU's AFIR/FuelEU Maritime framework requires on-shore power supply or an equivalent zero-emission alternative from 1 January 2030 at AFIR-covered ports, extending to every EU port with OPS facilities by 1 January 2035. California's CARB At-Berth Regulation already requires container, reefer, and cruise vessels to plug in or run an equivalent control system while berthed. Meanwhile, typical shore-power connections run 6–12 MVA for large container ships and 10–16 MVA for cruise ships — a demand spike most berths' existing service was never built to carry on its own.
Sources: EU Mobility & Transport · Port Electrification Economics · Cold Ironing, 2026 Update
A dockside VSB bank absorbs the vessel's peak hotel-load draw and discharges it on demand, so the port's grid connection only has to carry the average load, not the instantaneous peak. Because the chemistry is non-flammable with no active cooling requirement, the buffer can sit at the pier — closer to the vessel, with a shorter cable run — without the fire-code setbacks a lithium installation would need in the same footprint. It also recharges between calls faster than a lithium system can safely accept, so the buffer is ready again before the next vessel ties up.
This is a first-pass positioning page — Blue Functionality does not yet have a sized Berth deployment or case study. Figures above are industry context, not a BF-specific spec. Tell us your berth's numbers and we'll work the sizing with you.