When the developers of the first fully electric tugboat in the United States were looking to plug it in somewhere in the Port of San Diego, they turned to the charging station experts with San Diego Local 569 to build the first of what’s hoped will be many such shoreside stations.
"Local 569 is proud to be the workforce at the port that’s laying the electrical groundwork for the eWolf tugboat,” said Business Manager Jeremy Abrams. “It’s all work that we already know how to do.”
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On hand for the eWolf’s recent christening were, from left, Ninth District International Representative Micah Mitrosky; San Diego Local 569 Political Director Cori Schumacher and Business Manager Jeremy Abrams; and Anchorage, Alaska, Local 1547 Lead Organizer Kyle Kaiser.
Photo courtesy of Brian Campbell, Local 40
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When Crowley Marine Services needed a charging station in the Port of San Diego for their eWolf electric tugboat, they contacted the experts at San Diego Local 569.
Photo courtesy of Brian Campbell, Local 40
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This past spring, as many as 10 members of Local 569, working for IBEW signatory contractor Baker Electric, could be found installing a state-of-the-art microgrid and related shoreside power infrastructure at Crosby Pier, at the northern end of the 10th Avenue Marine Terminal and not far from the Coronado Bridge.
“One thing I was excited about with this project was how the IBEW was leading the way on it,” Abrams said.
The new charging station, designed to draw power from the local grid during off-peak hours, was built in consultation with Crowley Marine Services, the shipping and logistics company that was awarded federal and state grants worth $18 million toward the design and construction of the eWolf and its charging station.
At Crosby Pier, Local 569’s electricians installed a 40-kw solar cell canopy that supplements the shoreside microgrid’s power needs while providing shade for cabinet banks containing the charging station’s 500-kw batteries. Workers also replaced the site’s 750-kilovolt-ampere utility service transformer with a 1,500-kVA model, and they put in new switch gear, electrical conduits and cables, 10 AC/DC converter cubicles and isolation transformers.
Union access to projects like this one in the greater San Diego area has gotten easier in recent years, thanks in large part to the determined efforts of Local 569 members and the other building trades unions — first by working to get majorities of labor-friendly City Council members elected in San Diego and neighboring Chula Vista, and then by lobbying those leaders to overturn their cities’ bans on project labor agreements and enact new PLAs.
“From the San Diego shores of the Pacific to the deserts of Imperial Valley,” Abrams said, “Local 569 stands with communities impacted by decades of dirty industry to decrease air pollution and increase community health.”
For years, conventional harbor craft like tugboats have represented about half of all maritime-related pollutant emissions as they go about helping barges and oceangoing vessels navigate harbors and maneuver in and out of berths. A typical diesel-power tug can burn 30,000 gallons of fuel per year.
The eWolf’s batteries are powerful enough to let it complete two typical jobs at full power before needing a recharge. Over 10 years of service, the e-tug is expected to do work that ordinarily would produce, from a conventional tug, 178 tons of nitrogen oxide, 2.5 tons of diesel particulate matter and 3,100 tons of carbon dioxide.
“We know the positive impact that transitioning from dirty fuel to clean electricity will make on those communities adjacent to California’s fourth largest port,” Abrams said.
The shoreside charging station now in place is the first of what is hoped will be many more such stations — not just in San Diego but across North America — helping the IBEW gain steady construction and maintenance work in the expanding port and boat electrification industry.
Meanwhile, Crowley is developing several more eWolf sister tugboats. Thanks to the Port of San Diego project, Abrams said, the IBEW now has a leg up on capturing work building the shoreside charging stations for those e-tugs, too.
“Our partnership with the port is exemplary of Local 569’s decades-long commitment to being at the forefront of California’s transition to a green, clean energy economy,” the business manager said, “from being among the first in the nation to develop a training program in solar technologies in 1999, to ensuring each of our members receives Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Training Program certification.”
The nonprofit EVITP was developed in a collaboration that included the IBEW alongside automotive, utility and manufacturing industry partners.
“Climate-friendly projects like this one, which helps the industry rethink the way tugboats are powered, are something that the IBEW can get enthusiastically behind,” said Ninth District International Vice President Dave Reaves, whose jurisdiction includes California. “The highly trained and highly skilled members of the IBEW will have a clear advantage in guiding this new industry along, giving our union another great opportunity to showcase what our members can do while helping locals increase their market share.”