PSA Marine invests in advanced fleet monitoring

PSA Marine has built a fleet monitoring centre in Singapore, known as the Fleet Data-To-Knowledge (D2K) Centre, to monitor its harbour tug fleet and uses simulators to train its marine crew there.

Using digitalisation technologies and wall-length screens, PSA Marine observes harbour tug positioning, operations, fuel consumption and machinery health while managing the scheduling and deployment of its tugs inhouse. It can visualise the location of the fleet around Singapore port waters using Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, and monitors transit times, speed and fuel consumption on the modern tugs to help tug masters to optimise operations and improve efficiency.

Riviera Maritime Media witnessed the latest digital technologies being used during a visit to PSA Marine’s Singapore headquarters in September 2023. These are based in the Fleet D2K Centre where duty fleet operations supervisors work ashore in shifts, monitoring the fleet, planning crew deployment, maintaining overwatch and monitoring fuel consumption and engine performance.

PSA Marine has worked with vendors to enable real-time remote monitoring of vessel condition and machinery health from the Fleet D2K Centre on board five tugs within the fleet. “We can see what is happening on board, monitor fuel consumption, equipment health, log events and track alarm activation, giving assurance and support to our crew and stakeholders,” says PSA Marine head of fleet management Bernard Wong. 

PSA Marine is trialling transit speed optimisation to reduce fuel consumption and Scope 1 emissions. By analysing operational and engineering data, a considerable amount of fuel can be saved when tugs are transiting between towage jobs at slower speeds. “Tug masters can see fuel consumption data in the wheelhouse. Through ongoing efforts to raise awareness, enabling cross-sharing of information and experiences, it takes a team effort to make this optimisation programme succeed,” says Mr Wong. “With this level of information, PSA Marine can train our tug masters to operate more effectively and efficiently.”