Seizing the opportunities from the energy transition

Abstract

To continue the success of the Port of Rotterdam (PoR) in the future, a transition to a sustainable industry is essential. Though this is easier said than done. The energy transition involves a variety of initiatives which are at the same time highly dependent on each other. Whilst the increasing scarcity of available area and resources result into the situation that a decision will have to be made. As long as this decision is not made, it leads to high uncertainty on which activities are going to take place in the PoR and at which point in time they are expected.

To support the decision making on which activities to should focus on, there is an urgent need for a decision tool at the PoR authority.

The main conclusion, however, is that it is impossible to develop a decision tool which is able to make a choice among different activities. This decision is impossible because every activity has its own demands and requirements and differs in the contribution it has to the strategic goals. Besides this, the set requirements cannot be expressed in a single unit, leading to the situation that a comparison cannot be judged.

Following from the above, it is being discouraged to develop a decision tool. The allocation process and the involved requirements are too versatile to be simplified in a single tool. If such a simplification is made, this will result in missing essential opportunities and potential bottlenecks in the sequential project phases.

Based on the above conclusions, it is investigated whether it is possible to provide the PoR authority with guidelines that support the comparison of different activities. To do so, the involved requirements in the allocation process are substantiated. These requirements are evaluated from three different points of view: demand side (client), resources side (Port of Rotterdam authority) and their priority in the decision making. By means of the evaluation, the aspects have been identified that must be implemented into the guidelines.

In addition to the requirements, it is important for the PoR authority to incorporate its communicated strategy into the daily activities. To do so, the commercial strategy has been developed. At first sight, the integration of the commercial strategy is not acknowledged to be a requirement in the allocation process. Though, as the research proceeded, it turned out that the commercial strategy has a more important role in the decision making than anticipated. Resulting in the situation that if the PoR authority is really looking to fulfil its climate targets, the commercial strategy should function as a self-contained requirement in the allocation process.

From the conclusions, the recommendation for the PoR authority is to develop a central team that involves the experts of the relevant requirements to judge the potential activities. This team will have the primary task to evaluate and judge the potential activities prior to entering the project phases. The judgement of the potential activities will be founded on four main themes for evaluation: demand, supply, priority and contribution to the commercial strategy.

Though, this recommendation is not aimed at making the decision itself. The main focus is to supply the evaluations on the potential activities to the decision makers. The decision itself will be based on the supplied evaluations through which a decision can be made on which activities should be allocated in the PoR.