Eniram Ltd., provider of dynamic decision support systems for the shipping industry, today announced the extension of the existing fleetwide agreement with Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), an innovative cruise line operator headquartered in Miami, Florida, to include new build NCL cruise vessels. A testimony to the benefits brought by Eniram DTA, the system will now be deployed on the new Norwegian Epic, the largest and most innovative of NCL’s Freestyle Cruising ships. The plan is to deploy the Eniram DTA to all future NCL cruise vessels.
Following the first installation on Norwegian Jewel in October 2008, the Eniram DTA has been rolled out to all NCL cruise vessels in operation. The fleetwide use has proved to bring significant savings on fuel consumption and a corresponding decrease on exhaust emissions. The DTA dynamically retrieves and analyses data of the prevailing trim, propulsion power and the use of stabilizers. The system combines the data with current conditions such as waves, wind and speed, and determines the optimal trim for each situation.
“With the Eniram DTA, we’re using less energy to achieve the same speed,” said Mr. Bjorn Ove Hansen, Captain and Director of Nautical Operations at NCL. “It is no secret that one of our biggest expenditures is fuel. Therefore, we are interested in innovations that can help us decrease fuel consumption. The Eniram DTA has proven to be a reliable system and we plan to keep using it across our fleet.”
The Eniram DTA helps vessel officers optimize trim at all times, minimizing water resistance, decreasing fuel consumption, and reducing emissions. By bringing real-time data of the vessel attitude to ship’s officers in an easy-to-read graphic form, the system facilitates faster and better informed decision-making and allows timely action in changing circumstances.
“In the shipping industry, there is a tendency to dislike all new technologies until proven to work,” continued Mr. Hansen. “We have seen how people change their view towards the Eniram DTA one by one. A great part of the DTA is that there is almost nothing to learn and very few buttons to press – quite the opposite to many other systems.”
“The experiences at NCL clearly show that our promise to cut fuel consumption by up to five percent holds in everyday use,” said Mr. Henrik Dahl, Managing Director of Eniram. “Expanding our cooperation with NCL is a testimony of the benefits of the DTA in decreasing fuel consumption. We are excited to help NCL grasp further benefits through their fleetwide installation.”
Eniram’s decision support systems are designed by a team of marine system experts, software architects, programmers, naval architects and captains creating a unique combination of expertise. The DTA is based on dynamic data that is automatically retrieved from operational vessel management applications and purpose-built sensors using sensor network technology.
The core of the DTA software is a multidimensional analysis model, which continuously calculates the key forces affecting the vessel attitude. In fleet-wide use, the system can be extended to provide shipping companies with compounded vessel performance data for more efficient fleet management.
Eniram introduced the Dynamic Trimming Assistant (DTA) to the global maritime market in July 2008. Since then, the Finland-based Eniram has established subsidiaries in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Oslo, Norway. Eniram is now looking at expanding their presence in the Asian market.
