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Finnish firm Wärtsilä has been awarded a long-term service agreement by global cruise operator Princess Cruise Lines Ltd. The contract covers seven Princess Cruise Lines vessels, each of which is powered by Wärtsilä 46 common-rail engines. In total, the engines represent 270 MW of power.

The broad scope of services covers technical management and logistics support, spare parts for scheduled engine maintenance, workshop services, an on-board technical advisor during major overhauls, annual training of the engine room crew, continuous condition monitoring of equipment and reporting, and bi-monthly technical visits to each vessel.

"This agreement optimises the maintenance schedules for these seven vessels, and provides the customer with technical expertise at a fixed budget price. In particular, Wärtsilä's deep know-how in the field of common-rail technology was a key factor in the award of this contract," said Andy Edwards, Vice President, Strategic Accounts.

Wärtsilä is an experienced operator with a proven track record in operation and maintenance services. Globally, more than 16 GW of generating capacity in both marine and land based installations is covered by Wärtsilä's Operations & Maintenance and other service agreements, the company says.

Wärtsilä is the market leader in common-rail technology for electronically-controlled low-speed marine engines. This technology provides a high degree of flexibility in engine settings to give lower fuel consumption, very low minimum running speeds, smokeless operation at all running speeds, and control of exhaust emissions. Furthermore, the integrated redundancy of the engines is said to ensure high reliability.