Wellington's electric ferry is close but it may be next year before it can do full schedule

Saturday, 3 April 2021

Work on the ferry began in 2018. (Video first published April 2021)

East by West Ferries’ all-electric ferry is expected to be in the water next month.

But it may be a year or more before it can be recharged quickly enough to do a full schedule of sailings across Wellington harbour.

The ferry company’s managing director, Jeremy Ward, said the finishing touches were being made to the ferry, which has now been painted and had its windows fitted.

Electric charging company Retnya is co-ordinating the charging infrastructure for the ferry.

* Assembly of Wellington's electric ferry to start by the end of 2019

* New Zealand's first fully-electric commuter ferry

Its managing director, Elizabeth Yeaman, said it would initially take from under an hour to 90 minutes to fully recharge the ferry after each return trip across the harbour, depending on the weather, wind, tides and passenger numbers.

That is expected to mean the zero-emissions ferry will be able to cover five or six of the 16 daily return sailings operated by East by West.

Retnya aims to upgrade the ferry charger from the 300 kilowatt unit which is now about to be installed, to a “megawatt” charger within the next year to 18 months.

That would then allow the ferry to be fully charged within the 15 to 20 minutes passengers normally take to embark and disembark, and allow a full schedule of nine daily sailings, Yeaman said.

A mock-up of the ferry released in 2019.

The charging upgrade could also pave the way for East by West to invest in additional electric ferries, and perhaps run trips to a refurbished Miramar wharf to serve commuters and the airport, she said.

“That would mean people on the Miramar peninsula who currently have a 40-minute commute at peak times, and have to change buses, would be able to get to the central city, after a short walk through the Miramar cutting, in seven to eight minutes.”

The trip by ferry and electric bus to and from the airport would be “under 20 minutes in all traffic conditions”, she said.

Yeaman said the availability of the more powerful megawatt chargers, which are designed to charge “ferries, buses and aircraft”, had been delayed because the Covid pandemic had held up work on an international standard that they would be manufactured to.

But if that continued to be an issue, there would be an option to install more of the 300KW chargers and use them “in parallel”, she said.

There were no issues she was aware of getting a sufficiently powerful power line to feed the chargers at the wharf, she said.

“There is no capacity issue for electricity in the area. We can get the electricity that we need to run the ferry on its full schedule – there is no issue with that.”

Ward said East by West was “happy as Larry” with the charging plan and the sailing schedule would be “exactly as we planned it”.

There were no issues, as East by West would have three ferries in total, he said.

The all-electric ferry, which should be the first in the southern hemisphere, was originally expected to enter service a year ago.

The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) agreed to chip in $100,000 towards the cost of the ferry through its Technology Demonstration Fund, with the first funds payable once the ferry is certified for commercial operations.

Spokeswoman Sarah Barnett said it became apparent mid-last year that the ferry was going to be delayed “due both to Covid-19 impacts and also due to issues around charging systems and infrastructure”.

But the EECA had agreed to an extension to the commissioning date through a variation to the funding agreement, she said.

“The development of new technology is inherently risky for early adopters.”

But its fund existed to support the development of technology that had potential to make a difference in decarbonising New Zealand by taking on some of that risk, she said.