Denton Wharf Shore Power
Story Marine was granted planning consent for the Denton Wharf shore power project by Gravesham Borough Council, and has been operating successfully since October 2025.
The River Thames’ role is becoming ever more important within the context of environmental sustainability. It presents itself as an important conduit for achieving the government and Mayor of London’s aims of transitioning towards net-zero. The impetus for the Denton Wharf Shore Power project is underpinned by the need for vessels and associated marine operations on the River Thames to transition to net zero emissions. On the 21st October, 2025, Story Marine successfully completed the installation of a cutting-edge 0.55 MW shore power system, eliminating the need for diesel generators and reducing CO₂ emissions by over 280,000kg annually – the equivalent of avoiding the burning of 4,000 litres of diesel every week. For both Story Marine and Svitzer, this is a significant achievement in their green energy transition with the opening of the largest shore power facility on the River Thames, located at Denton Wharf that has the capacity to deliver net zero operations for the next thirty years.. The project also represents one of the largest, non-subsidised, shore power installations in the UK and demonstrates how the right investment can work.
The Site is located to the northern end of Mark Lane and is currently occupied by the Port of London Authority. To the north of the Site is the River Thames and land to the east of the Site falls within the Thames Estuary and Marshes Special Protection Area (SPA). The wharf is a commercial wharf, and is the head operational base of the Port of London Authority (PLA), which works to support the River Thames economy. The eastern section of the jetty is currently occupied by a fleet of Svitzer tugboats working up and down the River Thames that when at berth, were powered by a static diesel generator.
The development at Denton Wharf will provide small-scale infrastructure which is required to facilitate a shore power installation. The installation incorporates two independent supplies for resilience, a cable bridge over the flood wall, a total of nearly 900m of marine-grade cabling and five isolation points for safety, all of which supplies zero-emissions power to the Svitzer tug fleet operating from the wharf. The electrical power supply uses a 100% renewable tariff from TotalEnergies. The infrastructure is connected to the local grid network and allows the fleet of Svitzer tugs, and other marine operators, to power their vessels at berth using electricity from the local grid network.
By providing adequate electrical power services, marine operators using the pier now and in the future will be able to move away from burning diesel in generators (either onboard or temporary pier-side generators) to zero emissions at source. Previously, the Svitzer diesel generator consumed 4,000 litres of diesel weekly and required a lorry fuel delivery along the jetty once a week. Now that the system is operational, the generator has been removed, and the Story Marine infrastructure is reducing local emissions by approximately 5,400kg per week which total 280,000kg annually. In addition, this project is expected to displace a total of 7.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide over the course of its lifetime and has the capacity to deliver net zero operations for the next thirty years.
The introduction of this infrastructure at Denton Wharf will also work to support and facilitate the reinstatement of commercially viable operations at the pier in the future, with the pier being a critical piece of infrastructure to the Port of London and of the River Thames; supporting commercial operations essential for river safety.
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28 Clipper House, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London, United Kingdom, E14 0JW | Company Number 14964629