Interview with Eniram: First Major Product Since Wärtsilä Acquisition Ready for Launch

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Monday September 26, 2016

In July, Wärtsilä announced its acquisition of Finnish marine energy management company, Eniram Oy (Eniram). With technology set to play an ever increasing role in bunker savings and overall operational efficiency, Ship & Bunker talked to Eniram Managing Director Henrik Dahl about what we can expect following the acquisition, both in the near term, and what might be possible in the longer term.

The exciting news is that Eniram SkyLight, what Dahl describes as a radically new approach to performance management, is set to launch later this month.

S&B: How will we see Eniram and Wärtsilä's products develop as a result of the acquisition?

HD: Eniram has the most comprehensive and established portfolio in ship optimization and very strong capabilities in analytics and modelling. Wärtsilä has been doing Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) for decades and is getting ready to launch the next generation of CBM in the near future. On the shore side, Wärtsilä has been a forerunner in remote management of power plants and engines since the 90's- Combined we have the most complete portfolio within the industry for performance based management of vessels. Adding the capabilities in remote support & management (Virtual service engineer, Fleet management tools, etc.), the leading position in vessel equipment, will enable us together to take the customer services to a completely new level, as well.

S&B: Wärtsilä's Pierpaolo Barbone said we can expect product launches from Wärtsilä and Eniram "in the near future." Are you able to give us any insight into what we can expect?

HD: On developing the existing offering, we will continue working in a tight partnership with selected key customers and industry leaders. However, a big majority of the industry today is outside the reach of advanced technologies. As UCL Energy Institute recently announced in a study made to the Carbon War Room, owners are failing to get the direct financial benefits of fuel savings technologies. With a majority of the global fleet on the market having a separate owner and operator it means there is little appetite for the ship owner to invest in technology to save fuel even though the vessel level business case would be there.

To stay as forerunners, we need to provide our capabilities to the whole shipping industry. This is why our first major joint announcement will be the introduction of a completely new series of performance management tools. On the 27th of September 2016 at the Baltic Exchange in London we will be launching Eniram SkyLight – which is a radically new approach to performance management. With SkyLight we will be able to offer accurate fuel-speed curves, the basis for all ship and performance optimization, at a very affordable price.

The turn-key service includes intelligent sensoring, integrated satellite communication, automated modelling and weather enrichment. All this in tandem with access to web-based tools for optimization, at a fraction of the cost we are used to in the industry. With this new series of tools, we will together be able to expand continuous performance monitoring, optimization, and predictive management to all parts of the industry.

S&B: Over the last 2 years oil and bunker prices have fallen significantly. This has lengthened the ROI picture for all bunker saving technology. However, some would argue that the associated downturn for many - particularly bulk and box carriers - means now more than ever they need to save every dollar they can.

How does Eniram see the impact of oil prices on its products, and having said its technologies can provide fuel savings of up to 10%, are these savings alone enough to be attractive in the current bunker price environment?

HD: We have seen that for the "premium segments" such as LNG carriers and cruise ships the ROI is definitely there with up to USD Millions of annual savings potential per vessel. These segments are anyway forerunners in technology adoption and have currently big needs for data & analytics as they are transforming their operational value chain with digitalization. For bulkers and box carriers, connectivity has been a big issue, however there is an ongoing revolution in satellite connectivity. Until a few years ago just the broadband connections were limited to a few thousand ships. With extensive broadband satellite connectivity and rapid adoption of digitalization, the costs of energy management and optimization which was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, can finally be provided affordably to the extended shipping industry below USD 1,000 per month. With these prices there is a business case irrespective of fuel price.     

S&B: While bunker prices have been falling, the impetus for shipping to reduce its emissions has increased. Will we, or indeed are we already, seeing a shift in thinking as to the primary reason for bunker saving tech to be away from dollar amounts, and more to savings in terms of emissions?

HD: We naturally see the latest environmental regulatory changes such as the outcome of COP21 and MRV as very important drivers for the industry. For our existing clientele, we see this being less of an impact as they are already taking all reasonable actions to being proactive on emissions and fuel saving, regardless of the fuel price. However naturally for the broader market operating on tight margins in difficult times, the challenge of getting one further layer of responsibility and cost may be painful. This is especially why we believe the SkyLight and similar mass-market adaptions will be essential for the industry to adapt to changing emission legislation and reduce the environmental impact. We are however currently also seeing a shift in focus from fuel savings to overall operational excellence through digitalization and the transparency it provides.       

S&B: In recent years the fuel savings made possible through data-driven optimizations have been helped considerably by improvements in the underlying technology; computing power has increased allowing for more complex modelling, ship-to-shore connectivity has improved dramatically, data sets have gotten bigger, and the volume of data that can be analyzed has gotten bigger.

Do you have any sense as to where we are now on the journey of what's possible through data-driven optimizations, and how much more could be possible in the future?

HD: My personal take is that the industry is currently still a few years behind. The focus is still on data collection, with little talk about data quality, standardization or security. As the industry evolves, focus will shift much more into how we utilize the data, not so much on how much data we collect. This is a natural evolution most other industries have taken. It may take some time; however, the pace of change is definitely increasing. I believe, our industry will catch up quickly in the next few years.