Wärtsilä HY Hybrid Technology Marks New Era in Shipping
The world’s most powerful 36 metre hybrid icebreaker tug Vilja was delivered to her Owner, Port of Luleå, on June 2019 at Gondan Shipyard in Spain.
Vilja is a 36 metre TundRA 3600–H, Icebreaking Escort Tug designed by Robert Allan Ltd. to Ice Class 1A Super, capable of breaking 1 metre of ice at up to 3 knots. This is the most powerful icebreaking escort tug of this size in the world with hybrid/electrical propulsion.
The tug was built at Gondan Shipbuilders in Asturias, Spain and was delivered in the end of June 2019 following successful completion of the commissioning and sea trials. The vessel is equipped with an innovative hybrid propulsion system featuring diesel main engines, shaft motor/generators, and electrical battery energy storage. This configuration allows effective power and fuel consumption management. The tug is capable of operating on the electrical battery power only or utilizing a single main engine in the hybrid diesel-electrical mode, or on two main engines in diesel-mechanical mode with possible battery boost. The resulting operational flexibility yields significant fuel, emissions and maintenance savings.
The solution has been specially developed to meet the specific needs of the tug market. It features operating characteristics that include ‘green mode’, with zero emissions and no noise, a ‘power boost’ that delivers a higher bollard pull than any other conventional solution of comparable size, and ‘smokeless operation’ whereby no smoke is produced even during start-up of the main engines. These features have all been successfully tested and demonstrated.
The Energy Management System (EMS), representing the ‘brain’ of the Wärtsilä HY, has been specifically tuned based on actual data acquired during one year of field operations. Its functionalities have been fully tested at the Wärtsilä Hybrid Centre. The EMS is designed to efficiently cope with drastically changing operating conditions. In Luleå, the vessel will alternate between normal summer time operations, and working in one metre thick ice during the winter months. Having an adapting EMS ensures the tug’s ability to maintain the highest efficiency performance in both situations.
“This vessel is the most powerful tug operating with hybrid propulsion and it can be considered as creating a benchmark in the new era of modern shipping. The implementation of the Wärtsilä HY and the process followed for reaching this milestone, represents a practical application of Wärtsilä’s Data Driven Design principles, and it effectively transforms our Smart Marine vision into practice.”
says Giulio Tirelli, Director, Sales & Business Intelligence, Wärtsilä Marine.
“The ‘Vilja’ represents the most technologically advanced tug currently in operation. The selection of the Wärtsilä hybrid power module will ensure a drastic reduction in emissions, setting new, higher, standards for our service, and for the quality of life in the Luleå region. Our deep cooperation with Wärtsilä will also ensure additional potential achievements during the vessel’s lifecycle.”
added Henrik Vuorinen, CEO, Luleå Hamn AB
The innovative ‘Wärtsilä HY for Tug’ solution enables significant benefits in terms of environmental performance, and a significant reduction in fuel and maintenance costs. During trials, the icebreaking tug achieved a 100-tonne bollard pull, while producing approximately 20 percent fewer emissions than a comparable conventional vessel.
