Page 10: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 2013)

10 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News ? FEBRUARY 2013 NEWSMonthly Change SecondhandVessel Values by Year & Size VesselsValue.com provides data driven ship valuations for tankers, bulkers and containerships. These graphs show how vessel value de-pends on age for the major types. Vessels are assumed to have typical size and speciÞ cation for age and high built quality at a top tier shipyard. Wärtsilä-powered FPSO Completes Full Load Tests The new P-63 Floating Pro-duction Storage and Ofß oading (FPSO) vessel featuring Wärtsilä 50DF dual-fuel engines, the Þ rst such ship to use gas engines to produce more than 100 MWe of power, has successfully completed all the required full 100% load tests. The tests were carried out at the Cosco shipyard in Dalian, Chi-na and the vessel will commence operations in Brazil?s offshore oil Þ elds in 2013. The Wärtsilä dual- fuel engines can be run on treated well gas or treated crude, as well as marine diesel oil (MDO), which means that virtually no MDO will need to be shipped to the P-63, helping to reduce operating costs and lowering CO2 emissions. In real terms, it is estimated that the level of carbon emissions will be reduced by as much as 93,000 tons per year. Wärtsilä was contracted by the Brazilian industrial group QUIP, to provide a turnkey package for this vessel. The package includes three main power modules, each comprising two 18-cylinder Wärt- silä 50DF engines in V-con Þ gura-tion, alternators and all required auxiliary equipment, as well as commissioning, start-up, and op-erational supervision.GE?s Power Conversion business has started Þ tting the latest gen- eration of Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS) to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) ships Wave Knight and Wave Ruler. The technology is de- signed to extend the life and versatility of the IPMS Þ tted to the two ships, helping the RFA to maintain at-sea supply capa- bilities in supporting the Royal Navy?s global maritime operations. The IPMS includes machinery control and surveillance, damage surveillance and control, electrical power control and management and Replenishment at Sea (RAS) functions.The current update is a planned pro-gram in which GE will coordinate with the RFA and with the selected shipyard to decommission the previous generation equipment and replace it in phases to suit each ship?s ongoing operational commit- ments. The work is expected to be com- pleted by early 2014. The new IPMS complements the elec-tric power and propulsion system on the ships as it was originally delivered by GE (at that time Alstom Power Conver- sion) during the construction in 2002. The IPMS update will maintain the core functionality of the original design and will manage component and system level obsolescence while providing an oppor- tunity to enhance the system with new features including GE?s distributed infor- mation recording and display (DIRAD) system, which is set to be installed. The DIRAD system is essentially an electronic damage control incident board system. It uses straightforward graphics to display damage control and Þ reÞ ghting incidents of all types in stations distrib-uted throughout the ship. DIRAD will be embedded within Wave Ruler?s IPMS op- erator human machine interface as a part of the current update program, thereby giving the RFA a trial Þ t for evaluation. GE acquired Power Conversion (then known as Converteam) in September 2011. www.ge-energy.com/electrifyingchange Royal Fleet Auxiliary Ships Wave Knight and Wave Ruler receive new Integrated Platform Management Systems GE Upgrades Royal Fleet ShipsMR #2 (10-17).indd 10MR #2 (10-17).indd 102/4/2013 12:44:42 PM2/4/2013 12:44:42 PM