Bureau Veritas Solutions Marine & Offshore (BV Solutions M&O) has developed and now delivered a ‘Fleet Energy and Emissions Forecast‘ tool to Brittany Ferries, the European Ferry operator with routes between France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain.

Brittany Ferries approached Bureau Veritas Solutions (BVS), the technical advisory component of Bureau Veritas Group, a world leader in testing, inspection, and certification, looking for support in forecasting performance, fuel consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions across their fleet. Brittany Ferries wanted each department to be able to meet CII and EU ETS requirements and, in the longer term, to map out the most efficient vessel utilization, capacity planning, route planning, retrofit scheduling, timetabling, and voyage management fleet-wide.

Focused on the key metrics of vessel speed and fuel consumption, BVS developed a new application and, working with Brittany Ferries, tested its effectiveness. The Fleet Energy and Emissions Forecast tool, which is web-based and uses a theoretical approach validated and calibrated by actual performance data, models the fuel consumption and emissions for every ship. BVS developed ship-specific energy models which, combined with ports and route data, enable forecasting adapted to the decision-making process.

Brittany Ferries can now use the application independently, adjusting parameters to develop detailed scenarios that enable its teams to plan for fleet-wide optimized and efficient operations, thereby reducing fuel consumption, emissions, and costs.

Brice Robinson, Manager Naval Projects dept., Brittany Ferries said: "Forecasting is crucial in the decision-making process. This web application gives us the confidence to model and plan individual ship energy requirements and, vitally, make decisions to manage our greenhouse gas emissions and operating costs for different ship and fleet scenarios. We recognize and are excited by the benefits delivered by the BVS web application to optimize route planning to maximize performance and minimize our fuel costs."

Laurent Verney, BVS France Director, Bureau Veritas Solutions Marine & Offshore said: "We are proud to work together with Brittany Ferries on this great project, which uses the latest advances in digital and modeling tools to deliver efficient and sustainable operations. This partnership has brought together our digital expertise with key insights and validation from Brittany Ferries, whose pioneering spirit, enthusiasm, and energy were critical success factors in delivering this real-life digital decarbonization solution."

In parallel to this development, BVS has worked and is continuing to work with Brittany Ferries to support operational decision-making with an advanced weather routing solution from software provider Adrena, which was developed with a common R&D process based on CFD calculations and BV’s SEECAT ship energy modeling software.