Powering the use of batteries

Battery packs help modern offshore vessels reduce emissions. Following a collaboration project between Solstad Offshore, Corvus Energy, VPS, Vard and Raa Labs, the usage of batteries can now be optimized according to actual operations, reducing emissions, and improving the return on investment.

Offshore vessels in the North Sea are often equipped with battery packs to allow for improved fuel efficiency during operations. Large investments in batteries onboard vessels are made both to meet requirements from charterers, as well as allowing operators to meet their performance improvement targets. But how to best use the batteries in everyday operations has not been standardized, due to the lack of data bridging the batteries and the operational systems.

Solstad Offshore is now able to monitor in real time the optimal usage of the Corvus Energy battery packs onboard their vessels, thanks to a groundbreaking collaborative effort between Solstad Offshore, Corvus Energy, VPS, Vard and Raa Labs. Technology company Raa Labs provides data from both battery packs and core operational systems onboard Solstad vessels, sharing all the data in real time both onboard as well as in the cloud. The data is made available through the application Maress from VPS, where all stakeholders can see the data and optimize the usage of the battery packs.

Sustainability Advisor in Solstad Offshore, Svein Erik Isaksen explains: “We wanted to ensure that the investments made in state-of-the-art batteries from Corvus Energy, were used in the right way and as much as possible. This would allow us to minimize emissions today, but also to plan for future investments, making sure that we have the right size battery packs installed onboard our vessels. If larger battery packs meant we could use batteries more in our vessel operations, that would be a win-win for us and the environment. The collaboration between Corvus, VPS and Raa Labs has been an enabler for us, giving us an operational insight we have not had before. We already see that we can use this to make our operations even more energy efficient than it is today.”

Henning Dahl, Chief Business Development Officer at battery manufacturer Corvus Energy elaborates: “We want to deliver the best possible solutions to our customers. We also want to make sure our batteries are used as much as possible to help reduce our customers´ emissions. The insight provided by the Raa Labs data in the VPS application Maress is a great way to give our customers the understanding they need to make the best possible operational decisions, leveraging their battery packs optimally. That make sense for the owners, for us as a supplier, as well as for the environment.”

“The Maress application for data-driven emissions reduction has become the de facto standard for operating your offshore vessels. By integrating the battery data delivered by Raa Labs into Maress, we can provide offshore operators with an overview of their operations that has not been previously available. This takes the operations of offshore vessels to the next level, allowing for complete control of your operational data including battery usage.” adds VP of Decarbonisation at VPS, Simen Sanna.

“Raa Labs is a provider of vessel data. Integrating data from batteries and operational systems like the automation systems onboard as we did for Solstad Offshore, is a great way to prove the value of real time sensor data from vessels. With RaaEDGE, our onboard IOT platform, it is easy to access vessel data that has been unavailable until now and making vessel data available for real value creation in an application like Maress. A great example of how the power of data can power the usage of batteries onboard vessels”, says Raa Labs CEO, Ari Marjamaa.