The University College of London (UCL) Energy Institute was commissioned by the Royal Belgian Shipowners Association (RBSA) to provide further insights into CO2 emissions, specifically the Energy Efficiency Operational Indicator (EEOI) and recent policy events, such as the EU MRV policy, through examining individual ship’s as well as fleets’ data over a 5 to 6 years timespan.
The work carried out provided the association with an evidence-based opinion on the merits of different operational energy efficiency indices and preparing members for foreseeable future changes in the industry. The work also discusses the challenges for policymakers in implementing MRV given the uncertainty in the data and measures to sanitize the data for analysis.
The study allows the RBSA to:
- Form an evidence-based opinion on the merits of different operational energy efficiency indices.
- Understand the implications of different potential public domain indexing and MRV policy developments.
- Prepare for foreseeable future changes in the industry.
- Assist in the development of a cost-effective GHG policy for shipping at the IMO
Main Findings
- Given the bleak prospects for the shipping industry at the end of 2008 (the first year of the study’s time period) and high
fuel prices to 2013, all ships in the study were slow steaming for until at least 2013 as the cost savings were more
valuable than saving time. The payload utilization (actual mass of the cargo/DWT) also followed a similar declining trend
in line with the deteriorating market conditions. - Technical and logistic factors are the key drivers of the Energy Efficiency Operational index (EEOI).
- There is a correlation between the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) and the EEOI across different ship sizes, but
there is a wide dispersion of EEOI values within a ship size class. This can be explained by the variation in logistic factors
with little evidence of correlation between the EEOI and any one of the logistic factors. - For all the types and sizes considered, variations in EEOI can be explained only by considering contributions from a
combination of the logistic factors (payload utilization and allocative utilization). - Significant differences were found in the laden EEOI (fuel consumption in ballast voyages and port excluded) when a
ship was operated on the spot market compared to time charter, resulting in a higher laden EEOI for ships on time
charter. - For each of the different ship types and sizes, the alternative operational energy efficiency indices (currently being
discussed at the IMO) show varying levels of trends agreement or disagreement. It is often the case that the three
alternative indicators produced different trends to the EEOI. This shows that a) no alternative energy efficiency metric is a reliable proxy to EEOI and b) the choice of energy efficiency metric is a function of what information is believed to
be of greatest importance. - Of the indicators considered, the EEOI is the only indicator that represents the carbon intensity of the actual transport
work done (when measured in t.nm’s), all other indicators approximate transport work done in some way. - The estimated trend in EETI (the EETI is a ship’s estimated technical efficiency in real operating conditions at a specific
point in time) appears consistent with expectations that performance is likely to deteriorate over time (e.g. coating and
fouling deterioration, propeller damage, engine wear) - EEOI improvements are being obtained over the period of the study (reducing EEOI with time) in spite of this underlying
technical efficiency deterioration – mainly due to extensive implementation of slow steaming.
You may view the Executive Summary of the study by clicking below:
Source: Royal Belgian Shipowners’ Association
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