Energy efficiency performance management

In this part an overview of management systems is outlined. Company management is responsible to set a company policy which describes where and how the company should aim and perform in terms of quality, safety, environmental and energy conservation issues and providing adequate resources and tools in order to ensure that the company policy could be successfully implemented. In addition, the management is responsible for setting realistic and achievable targets for the company’s quality, safety, environmental and energy performance. One of the most prominent management systems that is already mandatory in shipping is the ISM Code that as the name implies deals with shipping safety at its core. There are other management systems that although not mandatory, are widely adopted by the shipping companies including the following:

  • Quality management system, mainly known as ISO 9001
  • Environmental management system, mainly known as ISO 14001
  • Health and safety systems such as those based on OHSAS 18001
  • Energy management system such as those specified under ISO 50001 (MariEMS 2017).

All the shipping related management systems, whether mandatory such as ISM or voluntary such as ISO 140001 and ISO 50001, have general features that are common between them. However, it is expected that with time and due to the significance on climate change debates, more and more companies will allocate resources to deal with energy saving and energy efficiency over the time. There have been a lot of researches on this subject in recent years and all studies show that, it is possible to significantly reduce the shipping fuel consumption and GHG emissions. There is a large number of operational energy efficiency measures for existing fleet that would yield the above mentioned energy savings. Examples for the ship’s technical and operational management level are: Enhanced weather routing, Hull and propeller cleaning, Optimized trim and ballasting etc. (MariEMS 2017).

As advocated under IMO SEEMP, a company needs to have a company energy management system in order to coordinate not only the fleet SEEMPs but also provide company level coordination with external stakeholders such as charterer, shipper, shipbuilder, and other service providers. To do this, the best option will be to develop a CEnMS based on ISO 50001 principles. The development of company-level CEnMS based on ISO 50001 would need to be defined by the company. The following areas need to be dealt with in a shipping company CEnMS:

  • Company Energy policy, its communication and awareness raising on the subject;
  • Monitoring system and its implementation inclusive of KPIs, baselines, data collection, data analysis and so on;
  • Self-evaluation methods and how to evaluate the performance of various SEEMPs at top management level;
  • Training of staff at company-wide level. Increasing motivation and competence to deal with energy saving aspects;
  • Reporting to external stakeholders including major clients and regulatory authorities.

A good energy management system will have the following main characteristics:

  • Corporate leadership;
  • Planning aspects;
  • Human resources and training;
  • On technical and operation management;
  • Information gathering and management;
  • Reviews and assessment (MariEMS 2017).

When it comes to Ship energy audit process, a Ship energy audit is considered as a specific energy audit that is tailored made for evaluation of a ship energy performance and identification of a ship’s Energy Efficiency Measures (EEMs). Energy audits or reviews are key to a systematic approach to an effective planning for energy management. It represents a quantitative assessment of a company/facility/ship energy inputs and outputs and attempts to balance the total energy inputs, output and losses at top level as well as for major energy using systems and equipment. A ship energy audit/review involves a significant level of data analysis. The depth and breadth of data analysis depends on type of investigation and level of detail agreed. Examples of such type of analysis may include Ship operation profile, Fuel consumption profile, Hull performance assessment, Engine performance assessment. On the other hand, each EEM needs to be assessed both technically and economically to find out if they are feasible and cost-effective (MariEMS 2017).

In shipping industry there has been a continuous demand and interest in ship performance monitoring (SPM) overall and the monitoring of ship’s major operations or machinery systems. When high fuel prices and air emissions control take centre stage in the marine industry, the urge to increase a ship’s energy efficiency using SPM is normally higher. At the heart of a ship performance monitoring system is the data gathering, data analysis and data presentation aspects. A SPM, depending on its design and purpose, could provide various functionalities (MariEMS 2017).