CUSTOMER DESCRIPTION:

The customer is a world-leading global cruise operator, currently the world’s largest travel leisure company, with a combined fleet of over 100 vessels across 10 cruise line brands. To lower operating cost, global standards were introduced, and they needed an energy consumption optimization system.

CHALLENGE:

The customer wanted to lower the costs of operation while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions to comply with the environmental regulations of destination countries. This needed to be achieved in a way which would be unnoticeable by the guests and impact their experience and wellbeing as little as possible.

SOLUTION:

Accommodation, HVAC, galleys, laundries, and technical spaces, as well as engines and propulsion systems are some of the biggest consumers of energy on a cruise ship, so these had to be prioritised in radically lowering their consumption for the largest possible economic and environmental benefits.

The implemented solution was an advanced energy saving application, regulating temperature based on demand and the environment, created using AVEVA™ InTouch. By gathering data from engines specific to fuel consumption and power output, together with propulsion shaft torque meters allowed engineers to monitor performance during operation and react in time to increase efficiency and consequently reducing costs and CO₂ emissions.

The solution included a user-friendly AVEVA™ InTouch SCADA interface system for the operators, while the HVAC control in the background was handled by industrial grade PLCs and servers. With advanced engineering approach, the necessary downtime for installation, commissioning, and start-up was always kept to a minimum. The solution was standardized for all cruise ships in the fleet for simple integration and deployment.

IMPACT:

• Using this set of solutions, the fleet managed to reduce its fuel consumption by approximately 20%, which accounted for only a part of the total energy consumption reduction of 30%.
• Greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by around 15% across the fleet, which is estimated to amount to sixty thousand tonnes of CO₂-equivalent per year.

“We want to give people an experience of the beautiful open seas, but for those seas to remain beautiful, we need to be conscious of how much energy we spend and how much by-product we release into the environment. For that, having access to all the relevant information in a good real-time monitoring and management system that’s the same throughout our entire fleet is an absolute necessity for smooth sailing.”

Energy Infrastructure Team Lead