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ABB has this week released a video to explain how Dockwise Ltd, a specialist in transporting oil rigs, ships and tankers around the globe, is using its software to track how a ship behaves and to help control fuel costs.

Jaap Jan Stoker, Marine and Ports, Product Manager, ABB, said: "For the shipping companies 'fuel is cost', and on top of that you have now also 'fuel is environmental burden', so for that reason those are the two main drivers. It becomes more complex, they have to run two different fuel types and that's where software comes in as a really efficient tool. It's about payback periods, and with software you can offer solutions with payback within one year."

Jan de Jonre, Senior Marine Engineer at Dockwise, explained that not only does having monitoring software mean that it is possible for the company to track ship motions, but they can also provide data to clients who are interested in receiving detailed information.

"They want to have a post-voyage report, and also during the transport itself; they would like to receive updates on how the ship behaves and even want to know what are the expected ship motions, and that increases their level of confidence for doing transports with Dockwise," de Jonre said.

Commenting how ABB's software works, Martin Eilander [pictured], Marine and Ports, Service Manager, remarked: "During the voyage, the vessel owner and cargo owner can go to our online portal and see how the vessel - and how his cargo - behaves in the waves. We show all forecasts and calculations and.. we can show them the fuel consumption, and it's all being collected in our online portal. They can download it and they can do some calculations with it if they want."

In a demonstration of ABB's technology, Eilander said: "Select one of the vessels and you can see immediately the actual status, the actual roll motion for example, or the actual fuel consumption."

The full video can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJoEWvgzm_4

For further details about ABB's automation and marine software, please visit the following address:

http://new.abb.com/marine/systems-and-solutions/automation-and-marinesoftware

Image: Martin Eilander, Marine and Ports, Service Manager, ABB.