Modeling of Shore Power System Adoption Behavior: Multi-Agent Simulation Approach

Exhaust gas emissions are the essential sources of air pollution at ports, and emissions control has developed into a hot topic. The shore power system is an effective way to reduce exhaust gas emissions near the port during ship berthing. A multi-agent model is proposed to simulate the behavior mechanism of ship owners by using shore power under various policy and market scenarios. Through the numerical experiments, the results show that (1) the use of the shore power system is affected by the electricity price, the government subsidy, and carbon tax; (2) in the absence of policy interventions, ship owners have low enthusiasm for using shore power due to insufficient benefits; and (3) under a restricted supply of berths equipped with shore power, high-level carbon tax policy has limited impact on utilization rate. These findings provide useful policy implications that green port development needs cooperation of multiple stakeholders including ship owners, port enterprises, and government.