Electric power, terminal fire-fighting influence tug orders

As electric-powered tugs are ordered, designed and built, low-emissions power units are being ordered to drive off-ship fire-fighting system pumps. Increasing numbers of tugs are being built with external fire-fighting systems in FiFi1 or FiFi-E classes, also known as FiFi capability, to tackle blazes on vessels and infrastructure in harbours and terminals.

Some are supplied with dedicated small engines or generators, or power can come from a main diesel engine to run the pump that drives pressurised water and foam mixes to the monitors on the deck.

According to Fire Fighting Systems (FFS) sales director for marine Espen Sveberg, pumps on electric tugs are driven by power from permanent magnet (PM) motors or power take-off (PTO) units on generator sets.

“The number of electrical tugs has increased. We have delivered equipment for both Damen’s Sparky tug and Robert Allan’s ElectRA tugs.” Damen delivered its first battery powered tug, Sparky, to Ports of Auckland, New Zealand in 2022. Sanmar Shipyards is currently the only builder producing electric-powered tugs of ElectRA design.

“The FiFi pumps are driven with PM motors, or in some cases, the FiFi pumps are run from a PTO on the emergency gensets on board,” says Mr Sveberg.

“It looks like electrical tugs will continue to be a solution moving forward, hence we have received more and more inquiries for these kinds of tugs.”

The type, class and arrangement of fire-fighting systems is determined by the owner, naval architect and shipyard with increasing engagement with the product supplier.

“When designing tugs, the shipowner evaluates the use of a fire-fighting system and tug location,” Mr Sveberg explains. “We are often involved and co-operate with the owner, shipyards and designers to find the best solution for the vessel. This is a free-of-charge service our engineering and sales team provide.”

FFS has decades of experience in supplying FiFi systems, having delivered equipment for 5,711 vessels as of 1 February 2024. “2023 was another hectic year for FFS as the order list shows we increased order income by 47% between 2022 and 2023 and increased the staff with 17 employees,” says Mr Sveberg. “Most of the orders are for newbuilding tugs but we are receiving more orders for newbuilding projects and retrofits of anchor handling tugs [AHTS] and platform supply vessels.”

All the orders and deliveries for tugs and AHTS vessels have been of FiFi capability, FiFi1 or FiFi2 class, with FiFi3 only used on large, dedicated fireboats.

“60-70% of all FFS deliveries for tugs are FiFi1 as tugs are considered first-response vessels,” Mr Sveberg continues. “These vessels are equipped with water spray protection for cooling the tug’s surfaces to enable close operations during early stages of firefighting and rescue operations.”

During a larger fire, these vessels can move into the fire, pick up people from the water and start initial firefighting. “80% of the tugs with the FiFi1 notation also have foam fire-fighting capability for petroleum-based products or hydrocarbon fuels, even if this is not required by class.”

For the remaining 30-40% of FFS deliveries for tugs, the systems are smaller with the FiFi capability notation. “These systems are for smaller areas like marinas for leisure craft and smaller harbours where the fires are not that big,” says Mr Sveberg.