A Wärtsilä hybrid system with batteries aims to make offshore supply vessels less dependent on generators.
In what is believed to be the first experiment of its kind, the energy storage solution will replace one of four LNG-powered Wärtsilä engines on Eidesvik Offshore’s Viking Princess, with the aim of improving engine efficiency, generating fuel savings and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Cato Esperø, sales director at Wärtsilä Norway, said: "The Hybrid Energy System is a forward looking solution that not only reduces fuel consumption and emissions, but also contributes to safer and more efficient operations. We are confident that this project will have a positive effect on the industry. There is an increasing focus in shipping to reduce emissions and we believe that ship owners will continue to install hybrid solutions - both on existing vessels and new builds."
The engine load of the five-year-old Viking Princess, which provides supplies to oil rigs in the North Sea and Barents Sea, varies between 90% and 20%. The hybrid system can provide balancing energy to cover the peaks, resulting in a more stable load on the engines.
Wärtsilä stated that in the dynamic positioning mode, when the battery is used as power redundancy and the engine runs at its most efficient load, the fuel saving potential is 30%. It estimated that the Viking Princess may cut CO2 emissions by 13-18% per year, depending on the operating conditions.
Wärtsilä will install the hybrid system in September 2017.
Norwegian state enterprise Enova SF provided NOK6.5m towards the project.
