IACS Publishes Results of Emergency Power Supply Inspection Campaign Maritime Activity Reports, Inc. May 5, 2026 Source: IACS IACS, the membership organisation for the world’s leading classification societies, has published the results of its Concentrated Inspection Campaign on Emergency Power Supply Tests on ships, conducted during 2025, and made a number of recommendations that will improve compliance with SOLAS requirements. The campaign was launched in response to concerns raised by the Tokyo MoU over risks in the testing procedures, following observations raised by Port State Control officers over the reliability of ‘simulated blackout’ tests as demonstrating SOLAS compliance. The Concentrated Inspection Campaign commenced on 1 January 2025 and ended on 31 December 2025. During this 12-month period, emergency power supply inspections were conducted on a total of 36,723 ships. No issues were identified in the vast majority of cases, but a range of deficiencies were found on 853 inspected ships (2.32%). Based on an analysis of the data gathered during this inspection campaign, the survey panel reached a number of conclusions. A number of critical and recurring equipment failure points were identified, including the closing quick-closing valve, control unit/circuit (PCB/relay), and Emergency Diesel Generator (EDG) starting arrangement. These failures indicate industry-wide issues with equipment maintenance, installation quality, or component durability, and directly compromise SOLAS Ch. II-1 Reg. 42/43 compliance for automatic Emergency Power Supply (EPS) activation. The campaign also identified non-equipment deficiencies, the most notable of which is the lack of controlled blackout test procedures in company and shipboard Safety Management Systems (SMS). This is contrary to SOLAS Ch. II-1 Reg. 42.7/43.7 (periodic full system testing). Simulated blackout tests are widely used, but do not test the actual circuit paths required for real blackouts, which gives ships’