Show dictionary · Power & Electrical
Shore Power
Shore power is external electrical hookup for parked vehicles, a term borrowed from boating: tour buses and star trailers plug into venue or generator power (typically 50 A twist-lock or 14-50 connections) so HVAC, refrigerators, and interiors run without idling engines all night.
In practice
On the advance, shore power is a line item with a location: how many bus stalls, what connector, whose distro. Crews sleep on buses in venue lots; without shore power the alternative is generator or engine idle, which costs fuel, sleep quality, and increasingly, idling-ordinance fines.
The production side treats it as one more distro circuit with its own etiquette: buses draw heavily when air conditioning cycles, and a lot full of buses on one undersized service browns out together. Drivers and site electricians negotiate this daily wherever tours park.
How you’ll hear it
"Three buses need shore power stage-left lot; the venue has two 50-amp drops, so one runs off our distro."
Related resources
Part of the eventools.io Show Dictionary, a free glossary of live event production terminology.