IMO 2020 Boosting Interest in Voyage Optimisation Tech

The Tidetech Data Cube. Image Credit: Tidetech

As the industry moves ever closer to the new global 0.50% sulfur cap on January 1, 2020, interest in voyage optimisation systems has witnessed a notable uptick in, Tidetech has observed.

"With the costs of compliance rising and the price of bunker fuel likely to rise dramatically when the 2020 global sulfur cap takes effect, demand is increasing for tools that can make a positive contribution to lowering operating costs," the company says.

Tidetech provides a wide range of wind, weather, tidal, and other relevant metrological and oceanographical data to shipowners and third party software vendors.

"There has been tangible growth in interest across the last six to nine months in use of integrated metocean data in voyage optimisation, from both the bigger players and smaller ones interested in understanding their vessels' performance," the company says.

The use of such data can be used in a range of voyage planning scenarios, for example, to help vessel operators predict ETA. By adjusting vessel speed accordingly operators then have the opportunity to save fuel.

Tidetech's comments came alongside the launch of its latest service enhancement, the Tidetech "Data Cube" that enables users to query weather data in three dimensions: longitude, latitude and time.

"Previously it could take time to access historical data or make predictions about future sailing conditions because of how data was stored," the company explains.

"Using a relational database makes the data more available and accessible because the cube is itself made up of data cubes, which can comprise some or all of the weather elements, that can be interrogated either as historical, current or forecast data."