Can I reduce my vessel operating costs? Workshop, 13th June 2017, at Seawork, Southampton
Marine South East and the MOVE Project (Monitoring for Operational Vessel Efficiency) will be hosting this workshop to explore saving fuel, reducing emissions and vessel optimisation, both now and in the future.
Operating costs are a major factor for commercial work boats whether it be a single vessel or a fleet. To maximise savings, craft performance must be optimised for the required duty cycle, but often detailed data about how a vessel operates is not available.
Operators may be deterred from monitoring vessel propulsion performance as currently the equipment needed is time consuming and costly to install.
The MOVE (Monitoring for Operational Vessel Efficiency) Project has enabled significant technological advance and associated cost reduction in monitoring craft performance.
Offshore Wind Farm Support Vessels are an example of craft that work away from their 'sweet spot' for much of the duty cycle. Figures supplied by a vessel operator showed a fleet of 5 craft supporting a typical wind farm to be using 1,825,000 litres/annum. It can be seen that significant benefits may be gained if vessel efficiency is optimised.
A major advance through the MOVE project has been in 'Shaft Power Measurement'. Previously sensors required significant installation time by specialist engineers and costs were greatly increased if travel was required to the vessel.
Through MOVE, Project Partner Datum Electronics have developed a 'clamp-on' sensor which can be installed by the vessel's engineering staff in less than 1.5 hours. This will reduce costs significantly and allow operators to programme the fitting and removal of the system more easily.
Initial development and validation of the MOVE system is taking place aboard pilot vessels made available by the Falmouth Harbour Commissioners. This enables data to be collected whilst the Pilots carry out their daily duties providing real-time information from the vessel's systems.
The MOVE technology is now being installed aboard an operational Wind Farm Support Vessel for further testing and validation.
HEVIMA (Hybrid Electrical Vessel propulsion with Integrated Motor Assist) is another Innovate UK supported project led by REAPsystems. Its objective is to develop an innovative modular hybrid marine power system offering significant savings in fuel consumption, engine power rating, weight, emissions, noise and vibrations. It is particularly relevant to the small commercial vessel market for craft which generally have low average loads, but also require extended periods of high power.
To explain the benefits of collecting detailed data about a vessel's propulsion system and how this can be used to specify alternatives, such as hybrid arrangements, the MOVE and HEVIMA projects are running a joint workshop during Seawork International 2017, Southampton on Tuesday 13th June, 1530 -1730.
Registration to attend this free event is through the 'MOVE Interest Group'.
Membership of the Interest Group is free of charge, to join please use the following link and click the green 'join' button.
http://groupspaces.com/MOVEInterestGroup/
MOVE and HEVIMA are co-funded by Innovate UK, the UK's Innovation Agency and The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl)
