The Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) operates the Garden City container terminal in Savannah, North America’s busiest single-terminal container facility. The 1,200 acre terminal with a fleet of 27 ship-to-shore cranes and 116 RTGs, currently handles over three million TEU per year.
As part of their long term strategy, GPA has asked TBA, a leading simulation provider, to build a simulation model of the entire Garden City Terminal, to be used as a decision support tool.
In 2013, the TBA simulation model has been used for a range of studies, including a long term capacity analysis, evaluation of improvement measures, gate expansion plans and an evaluation of rail operations.
One specific study focused on the implementation of fully electric RTGs (E-RTGs).
GPA is the first operator in North America to use E-RTGs. GPA is currently expanding the E-RTG fleet to 15 E-RTGs. GPA intends to electrify all RTGs by 2024. The simulation model was used to assess the performance of the E- RTGs, including the impact of (de)coupling to the conductor bar during E-RTG block and lane changes. In addition the simulation was used to determine long term E-RTG fleet size requirements to support GPA throughput targets.
TBA is a Port Technology International Preferred Partner for 2014.
