Page 29: of Marine News Magazine (March 2022)

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Coulston Van Gundy, vice president, engineering ser- vices for Crowley, was instrumental in the design of the eWolf platform.

It’s important to be clear that at this point Crowley’s work was not an evaluation, and then a decision: electric vs. diesel. That choice was already made – to build an electric tug. The eWolf is a ? rst-in-class vessel. The busi- ness case for Crowley, obviously, and project funding, were different than standard, market-based decision mak- ing about new assets.

Van Gundy said the eWolf was designed from the keel up. He described a process that started with a traditional business case evaluation and engineering approach.

As with any vessel, an initial assessment is critical to de- termine the scope of services needed as well as the opera- tional ability required. For performance and to meet envi- ronmental regulations in the Port of San Diego, Crowley’s analysis said “yes,” and the eWolf project moved forward.

Van Gundy added, though, that sometimes a fully electric vessel won’t be the right answer. A diesel hybrid may be a better choice for transiting long distances, on

Puget Sound, for example. Also critical: charging infra- structure, which is available for the eWolf in the port of

San Diego. The point is an initial operational analysis will show if it makes sense to build a green vessel with resources available today.

Crowley’s team approaches new project risks by evalu- ating the need for specialized contracting expertise as part of their design process. The eWolf’s electrical system, for example, from batteries to wiring, was developed sepa- rately. This approach avoided mid-project learning curves because different systems were tasked up-front to special- ists and then integrated during construction. This is a repeatable and predictable approach that Crowley uses on other projects. Or put another way: alt-vessel projects will bene? t from the same design/engineering processes that bene? t “regular” projects. At this point construction is on schedule and engineers have not encountered any unexpected glitches.

Van Gundy said that the “shell” of the eWolf presents as a well-understood and predictable construction project.

The inside, though, includes “all of the latest and greatest technology that’s on the market today.” It’s worth not-