Weather routeing using StormGeo’s information services is saving the shipping industry around US$185 million per year through fuel efficiency. More than 6,000 ships are using StormGeo’s weather information to reduce fuel consumption or optimise voyages to meet the exact time of arrival. Most of these are using its Bon Voyage System (BVS) to lower bunker costs and improve ship performance.
According to StormGeo chief executive Kent Zehetner, these ships combined are saving 600,000 tonnes of fuel per year. “These are huge savings for shipowners and means our customers are reducing emissions by using our software,” he said. “From an environmental point of view, this saves 1.9 million tonnes of CO2, which is the equivalent of taking 450,000 cars off the road.”
Most types of ships are benefiting from weather routeing, but the majority with BVS on board are container ships, tankers, bulk carriers and roro vessels. “We are optimising routes while also providing efficiency tools for onshore shipmanagement,” said Mr Zehetner. “Data from the vessels enhances the quality, and operators can identify where to improve the performance of their vessels,” he added.
StormGeo has more than 20 years of historical routeing data, which shipping technicians can use to optimise routes for better ship performance. Ship operators can also use this database to benchmark their vessels against others. They can use StormGeo’s AWT SmartWatch software to run diagnostics on different parameters of ship performance to make improvements, or they can use a separate module for monitoring, reporting and verifying CO2 emissions.
On the questions of security and data ownership, Mr Zehetner said there were clear procedures and barriers. “We need to be very careful how we utilise the data,” he said. “Customers own their data, but we run analytics on anonymised data, so that is protected.” He continued: “We use the latest security protocols, so we have the right cyber security procedures in place.”
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