Dynamic energy modelling for ship life-cycle performance assessment

This article summarises related work undertaken by the EC-funded Research Project TARGETS, which focuses on assessing energy efficiency by a direct approach. Energy flows onboard ships are considered in the time domain for complete ship energy systems simulation, allowing for interactions at system and component levels and accounting for different configurations, operating profiles, itineraries and environmental conditions. The approach and tools form the basis for life-cycle energy management considerations, addressing design, operation and retrofitting. To demonstrate the methodology leading to the evaluation of performance-based energy efficiency and its anticipated impact on ship design and operation, a case study for containership was carried out. Results are presented and discussed, demonstrating considerable advantage in adopting a more systematic and scientific approach to address Energy Efficiency of ships.