Energy Management - What do ship owners/operators want?

[Andrew Williams]

On-board energy management is so complex! In simple terms, as I see it, there are two sides to this:

1. Maximising the (electrical or mechanical) energy generated from the minimum amount of fuel. Inputs are fuel and air, outputs are energy, exhaust and losses.
2. Maximising the useful work obtained from the minimum amount of generated energy. Input is generated energy, outputs are consumers (systems) and losses.

Suppliers can do many things to achieve this, but mainly at an equipment or system level. So, my question is this. What is it that ship owners and operators want to see, to manage energy efficiency at a whole-ship, or even fleet, level? Your thoughts will be appreciated.

[Kristinn A. Aspelund]

Welcome to MEM Andrew!

You are spot on in my view, energy management is all about meet your operating requirements with the least amount of fuel. Hence the benefits for the owner are directly affecting the bottom line.

Most suppliers in ships have to focus on what they are doing. In my experience most have been working very hard in optimizing their equipment. However my experience is that there are very few that have taken holistic approach to energy management in ships or in fleet in that matter. I've had the dialog with several owners on what is the desired output and what approach to take. Normally you would need to cover equipment setup and the efficiency of the equipment supplied from various different suppliers.

I believe you need to have quite clear energy management focus when you start to look at what matters most, for that particular owner and the ship/fleet being discussed. It is quite easy to get stuck on details such as gear box efficiency or what ever detail you as supplier have been focusing on, and then often miss the important stuff for the bottom line.

Cheers,
Kristinn

[Sigrún Dóra Sævinsdóttir]

Hi Andrew!

I think you state the problem nicely! I guess that with vessels becoming larger and larger, the task of solving the two problems that you state above becomes more and more complex.

On ship level I think that decision support, automation and interaction between systems is what operators would like to see to assist them in solving both of the problems on board. The second one is more complex, and is perhaps best solved on fleet level. Maximizing the transport efficiency of a whole fleet is a very complex , taking into account the time schedule, the weather and sea-state, the cargo weight etc. I guess that artificial intelligence or some learning mechanism is the first answer to the problem, but the question is can it be solved? I think it is a challenge that is worth it to take on.

Being a drag, of course everyone has a saying in the matter of energy savings. We could e.g. buy less stuff that is imported, and thereby reduce marine transport.

All the best,
Sigrún Dóra

[John Volc]

I think you have struck on a very important point. As a ship-owner we are putting a lot of effort in to implementing systems to manage energy consumption on a CORPORATE level. This is one level higher than fleet. It takes into account the services required on shore and on board, costs/benefits of cold-ironing, staffing, training and outside consultants to help with all the new technology. On the fleet side this obviously starts with scheduling (operations & maintenance) then goes into hull systems and finally mechanical and electrical systems. Planning tools to help with all this cross-optimization would be very useful. Any ideas?

[Daniel Kane]

At Propulsion Dynamics, we notice that shipowners want to know more than just what is the fuel loss due to hull and propeller condition. Nowadays, shipowners want some 'benchmarking' to go along with the analysis results in our vessel performance analysis CASPER' service. In other words, if a ship is out of dock 4 years and the speed penalty due to hull/prop condition is 0.45 knots then not only do they want that figure. They also want the corresponding fuel loss - meaning if they attempted design speed what would the increase in fuel use be?
All of this is fine, but nowadays the shipowner wants to know: "OK, so my speed loss is 0.45 knots... how does that compare to all other ships of same type in the CASPER program".

So, there are not only equipment and solutions but there is also the need for outsourcing of expertise. AND of comparisons and benchmarking which for many top-notch shipowners is really the next step.

Hope this helps.