Q&A: Wind & Sea with StormGeo

At this year’s SMM, we spoke to the company’s chief operating officer, Michael O’Brien (pictured), about some of the innovations at the company, for instance its planned collaboration with Alfa Laval’s wind propulsion system Oceanbird, a JV with Wallenius Marine. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

The Motorship: Can you explain the core services StormGeo provides to the maritime industry?

Michael O’Brien: “We have separate pillars that we’re operating in. It’s what we call the new advisory service, S-Routing, which is the voyage optimisation component. And we have S-Insight, which is the online platform, handling all the regulatory stuff. EU ETS, MRV etc. It handles all these different aspects of technical and commercial performance for shipping companies.

It’s really not a big deviation from what optimisation is at the end. When you optimise routes, we’ve always looked at it from a technical point of view, i.e. how much fuel am I burning? Am I burning too much fuel? Is my speed too high? Am I performing outside of a commercial charter party?”

TMS: What has been the impact of StormGeo’s acquisition by Alfa Laval?

MO: “Alfa Laval has been able to support us in understanding the broader market that they’re involved with and having a much more rigorous way of dealing with stuff like mergers and acquisitions and this kind of corporate discipline.

With the acquisition, they’ve made it clear what their purpose is for bringing us on and we’re very different to Alfa Laval, who focus on hardware and putting machinery onboard vessels. StormGeo is all about software and services.”

TMS: What is StormGeo’s USP, setting it apart in the maritime industry?

MO: “I’m a former licensed deck officer, it’s been ages since I’ve sailed, I don’t think my credentials are valid anymore, but I’ve sailed as a deck officer on board vessels. We have marine engineers, we have naval architects, so we have a lot of people that are behind the technology. And that’s the key thing.

It’s nice to have technology but in our services, you could pick up the phone and speak to somebody 24-7.

It’s a core part of our strategy to be on the forefront of all these different regulatory requirements because we have a very strong technical and commercial module in our S-Insight product. We’re always getting to market early with a’ robust product to address the regulatory market.”

TMS: Can you elaborate on StormGeo’s software development capabilities?

MO: “We have a massive development center in Vilnius [Lithuania], with 140 developers there. All really strong domain experts, which include engineers and CPARs.”

TMS: How does StormGeo collaborate with Alfa Laval’s Oceanbird or other wind propulsion systems?

MO: “What we offer to a system like Oceanbird, or any wind propulsion system, is really a function of how to position a ship relative to the wind. Any voyage optimisation package, what it boils down to is when you add distance to avoid a certain weather condition, or add distance to get a particular ocean current effect. Now we’re looking at maybe adding distance if necessary to achieve a better wind profile so that you get the maximum thrust, for example.”

TMS: What are the benefits of using StormGeo’s solutions with wind propulsion systems like Oceanbird?

MO: “If I’m able to optimise effectively and add a little bit of distance, I might get a better ocean current or I might get the vessel into a better wind regime where that thrust increases by say 7% or 8%. How we can contribute is mainly by tailoring optimisation algorithms to take into account the additional thrust.”