Over the recent years, ABB Marine & Ports Greece has excelled in developing different kind of solutions with the local engineering team in Greece. Energy Efficiency solutions like Variable Frequency Drives for Sea Water Cooling Pumps & Engine Room Ventilation Fans, Coriolis Mass Flow Meters Monitoring System and finally, OneBox Digital Solution, has been developed, engineered, and assembled by ABB Marine & Ports in Greece. An interesting interview with Mr. John Kokotos General Manager ABB, follows:
How do digitalization and sustainability link?
ABB conducted research of over 700 industry decision makers and found many connection points across industries what comes to digital needs and efforts, how digital solutions and services are applying to sustainability. The research was conducted using online questionnaires in August 2021. The survey’s 765 respondents were comprised of a mix of executives, vice presidents, directors, and senior managers with operational knowledge of how the Industrial IoT is being employed within their organizations. One key finding was that “Digitalization and sustainability are two of the biggest drivers of change across industries today”, and “96% of decision-makers say digitalization is “essential to sustainability”. (https://global.abb/topic/ability/en/better-decisions)
We believe that there is a direct link between digitalization and sustainability and want to emphasize the importance of both for future-proofing the industry. These themes are not relevant for just shipowners, but apply to all players in the industry, and we all must come together to ensure reaching the common goals of IMO issued regulations and aim for cutting the emissions of the global shipping industry. By providing shipowners with intelligent digital solutions, ABB contributes to a smarter, greener, and more efficient marine environment.
When we talk about digitalization, is there a “one solution for all” or rather different offering for different types of operations?
There are different “levels of digitalization” that can help ship owners and operators to make justified decisions and being aware of their operations, what comes to efficiency and performance of their ships and fleets. By gathering data for simple analysis, and by learning from vessel to vessel it is possible to enhance operations. Digitalization offers a very effective way toward compliance.
What we want to emphasize is that there are so called “easy entries” to digitalizing one’s operations, for example ABB Ability™ OneBox - Signals Monitoring system which collects inputs from the systems onboard ships, gathers them on a simple file and sends over to the customer’s cloud server. This is just pure data collection. For instance, you could then use ABB (or third party) data analysis and advisory to interpret the collected data. As an example, with ABB Ability™ Marine Fleet Intelligence system will show the data in selected dashboards in an online platform called Marine Fleet Portal. This information is then available for crew onboard the ship and the same data can be accessed in the onshore offices and fleet management centres. This allows seamless collaboration between the onshore and onboard staff.
Increased insight and continuous learning about the ship performance enable smarter decision making to improve operational efficiency and reduce fuel consumption. For example, based on the information collected by OneBox, shipowners can calculate fuel consumption and evaluate the possible need for further action to ensure compliance with the International Maritime Organization EEXI (Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index) and CII (Carbon Intensity Indicator) targets.
ABB’s digital offering has been divided into what shipowners and operators are looking for: Asset, vessel and fleet. Our offering goes from asset management with for example ABB Ability™ Remote Diagnostics System and service. More holistic support for vessel operations would be with motion monitoring, energy management and performance reviews with ABB Ability™ OCTOPUS – Marine Software system. For some ship owners it’s important to manage full fleet’s operations at once, having a full overview of each vessel, and for this, the Fleet intelligence is a tool to be used.
How has ABB Marine & Ports built their offering for digital services?
We have been listening to our customers in different marine sectors, and we have been learning together with the industry on different possibilities, and by that have identified our customers’ needs. Our aim is to support them to make their operations efficient, and to make sure they can continue serving their customers, regardless of whether it is carrying cargo, transporting goods or passengers, or providing luxury experiences for traveling guests.
Are there any new developments that you have for digital & marine?
ABB is constantly developing new solutions and adding features to existing offering, based on our in-depth knowledge and expertise as well as continuous strive to gain an even better understanding of the needs and possibilities provided by technologies today and tomorrow.
Are there any recent news from ABB Marine & Ports Greece that you would like to share?
Over the recent years, ABB Marine & Ports Greece has excelled in developing different kind of solutions with the local engineering team in Greece. Energy Efficiency solutions like Variable Frequency Drives for Sea Water Cooling Pumps & Engine Room Ventilation Fans, Coriolis Mass Flow Meters Monitoring System and finally, OneBox Digital Solution, has been developed, engineered, and assembled by ABB Marine & Ports in Greece. As a result, we grow our team every year to support our customers with best in class offering that is especially suitable for the Greek Merchant Fleet.
* General Manager ABB