In an effort to take energy efficiency to the next level, the Hamburg Süd subsidiary Columbus Shipmanagement GmbH (CSG) and INTERSCHALT maritime systems GmbH, the software provider for cargo operations and fleet performance, concluded a contract for equipping a total of 46 container ships with the fleet performance management software Bluetracker on September 08 at the SMM trade fair in Hamburg.
In order to achieve the stated target of saving one ton of fuel per ship per day for the auxiliary system (diesel generator and boiler consumption) within one year, the Ship Energy Efficiency team, under the leadership of Christoph Gessner, Managing Director of CSG, tested two different technologies on two 10,600 TEU container ships as part of a six-month trial.
The monitoring system was tasked with the reliably supervising the current energy consumption on board based on the consumption data of the engines and auxiliary systems within the on-board electrical system gathered both manually and using sensors. Furthermore, it should be possible to use the historical data and data gathered during running ship operation for extensive analyses so that as comprehensive a picture as possible of the ship's current energy consumption can be painted.
"In order to be able to adopt corresponding optimization measures together with the ship's command where necessary, we need a tried-and-tested monitoring and analysis system, which captures data from various on-board systems reliably and comprehensively and provides us with flexible options for spotting correlations, in particular in the case of inefficiencies, when we are evaluating the data," says Gessner with regard to the decision. "Our mission is to improve the environmental footprint of our ships by ensuring that the equipment on board is used as efficiently as possible. And the best way of doing this is with real-time data. So a reliable monitoring and analysis system is absolutely essential."
In addition to capturing data both manually and using sensors, Bluetracker stands out on account of its flexible software architecture, the interface with the MACS3 loading computer and the web-based analysis tool for evaluating the data. The experienced development team, made up of automation, seafaring and IT experts, is strictly adhering to the requirements of maritime practice and ship management in its continuous further development work.
"Ship managers can make informed decisions with regard to optimizing ship operations based on the data captured by Bluetracker and prepared for analysis. Subsequently, not only will energy efficiency be improved but wear and tear on machines and systems will be reduced as well," says Günter Schmidmeir, General Manager EMEA at Navis and responsible at INTERSCHALT for the integration of the software division into Navis, on the economic benefits of the software. "We're thrilled to be able to name CSG as another customer who shares our commitment to making ship operations more efficient."
This takes the number of ships that sail with Bluetracker to more than 500 worldwide.
