Nor Lines and Rolls-Royce have signed a groundbreaking “Power-by-the-Hour” service agreement for the two vessels Kvitbjørn and Kvitnos. The new service offering harnesses the power of “Big Data” to monitor, plan and perform maintenance and repairs on all the equipment it has installed on the cargo vessels.

Power-by-the-Hour is a completely new service from Rolls-Royce Marine, and the agreement with Nor Lines is the first of its kind. The service builds Rolls-Royce’s many years of experience with equipment monitoring, proactive servicing and available solutions in the aerospace market.

The agreement means that Nor Lines is handing responsibility for service planning and performance back to the equipment’s supplier, Rolls-Royce. Nor Lines pays a fixed charge per hour of operation, per ship. Rolls-Royce will monitor the equipment aboard each vessel from on shore through the use of onboard sensors. It will be able to connect to the ship and carry out service activities remotely or, if necessary, send out a service engineer to do the job. The agreement also covers planned maintenance, while day-to-day maintenance aboard ship will be carried out by the shipping company itself.

Sigvald Breivik, Nor Lines, CEO said: “The service contract insures us against downtime due to equipment failure. At the same time, it ensures that the Rolls-Royce equipment we have on board functions as optimally as possible.”

Nor Lines has also ordered Rolls-Royce’s latest Energy Management System, which logs energy consumption and emission levels. The data then can be used to make the correct operational decisions for the ships.

Knut Hovland, Rolls-Royce, Director Customer and Services said: “Both the Power-by-the-Hour and Energy Management systems have been developed because we now have the capacity to digitally monitor onboard systems from on shore. Our ability to record and analyse huge volumes of data means we can offer ships better and more comprehensive service agreements than we could just a few years ago.”

Nor Lines took delivery of MS Kvitbjørn from the Tsuji shipyard in China in 2015. It was the first of two vessels ordered by the shipping line, and was the first Norwegian gas-powered coastal cargo vessel. The Kvitbjørn’s sister ship, MS Kvitnos, was delivered later the same year. Now, the vessels sail back and forth between ports in central Europe and along the Norwegian coast up to Hammerfest. The Kvitbjørn and the Kvitnos were also the first commercial vessels to be ordered with Rolls-Royce’s award-winning NVC 405 Environship design.

Rolf Herheim, Nor Lines, Technical Director said: “Both the Kvitbjørn and the Kvitnos are high-tech ships, and we are in a situation where parties have what it takes to enter into a modern service agreement. That’s why this contract was an obvious choice for us. The crew on board is also looking forward to getting the solution up and running.”

The agreement with Nor Lines, covers an array of Rolls-Royce equipment onboard the Kvitbjørn and Kvitnos, including a Bergen B35:40 engine powered by LNG, the Promas combined rudder and propeller, a hybrid shaft generator to optimise use of electrical power and an innovative wave-piercing hull design. The combined technologies that make the Environship concept reduce CO2 emissions by up to 40 per cent compared to similar diesel powered vessels, dependent on operational profile.

“The Kvitbjørn and the Kvitnos are obviously special ships for Rolls-Royce, not least because they have our clean-running LNG engine on board. We are looking forward to monitoring the progress of these innovative cargo vessels,” said Knut Hovland.

Source: Rolls-Royce