Decision support goes ‘real-time’

OSA is described as an onboard decision support tool that enables a ship’s crew to attain the optimum speed profile for each voyage, allowing vessels to maintain a constant performance and arrive into ports just in time. The software, a development of Eniram’s existing Dynamic Trimming Assistant, is said to be the only solution in the industry to combine real-time information about prevailing sea conditions with historical data, allowing operators to sail constantly at the optimum speed profile. This reduces the need for a crew to build in ‘buffer’ time and vary engine speed to ensure on-time arrival in port, a practice which is not fuel efficient.

Data and calculations are displayed on a ‘dashboard ‘and colour-coded ‘traffic light’ system, intended to co-ordinate all information in a single place where it can be readily interpreted without the need for additional manual input.

Eniram says that it developed and tested OSA in co-operation with its cruise customers. It draws on data collected from 100 vessels; the company claims that 200 billion signals were collected and analysed from over 60,000 sea days. This demonstrated the potential for a 2% energy saving by adjusting speed alone; by adding propulsion and trim adjustments, operators can expect to achieve annual fuel-related savings of 3%.

“Optimum Speed Assistant shows quick gains in efficiency,” says Eniram CTO Henrik Dahl. “For a typical vessel such as a cruise liner, payback time is significantly less than a year. We see that our Optimum Speed Assistant together with Dynamic Trim Assistant will be key elements of any vessel’s energy efficiency plan (SEEMP). These tools coupled with Eniram Performance Management will guide our customers to achieve best performance and reporting of emissions and follow up of EEOI,”

Ultimately, Eniram expects the tool to lead to a change in behaviour among ships’ crews in the way they use a ship’s engines. Mr Dahl says: “It is not enough simply to optimise the engine loads for each engine, as the ship ends up consuming more energy. Obtaining the best efficiency on a passenger vessel usually means operating at constant speed and using the engines at less optimal loads than those for which they are designed.”

Eniram says that it plans to release an engine optimisation product towards the end of this year.