New greener DP system from RH Marine

The DP system has been developed for naval vessels, dredgers, research vessels, work vessels and yachts, reducing emissions and allowing owners to comply with regulations in emission control areas.

The new system connects smartly to the energy management system, supplying data such as operational time, weather forecasts and route data, allowing the EMS to automatically calculate how much power needs to be generated. “If the DP system can indicate how much energy it will consume, then the EMS can calculate the most optimal energy generation allocation to minimise the fuel required,” explained consultants Ehab el Amam and Despoina Mitropoulou from RH Marine.

“The benefit is that the required load can be distributed in a smarter way, but also control the consumption using a priori knowledge, which means vessels can save significant fuel,” they added.

The EMS can also store power from the generators in batteries or, in the future, in other forms of storage such as fuel cells or flywheels. Optimising energy consumption can also be extended to other functionalities on board. “For example, it is possible to connect the temperature or air conditioning on yachts or other ships,” said Ehab el Amam and Despoina Mitropoulou.

“With even more prior knowledge, vessels can also optimise maintenance, onboard noise and other operational tasks on all kind of vessels,” they added.