India’s first greenfield and largest shipbuilding yard, Cochin Shipyard Ltd., has selected Siemens Energy to provide advanced marine solutions for the country’s first fleet of 23 boats to be equipped with electric propulsion drive trains with energy storage integration (batteries) and vessel automation technologies.
Cochin Shipyard Ltd. is building the fleet to strengthen Kochi Metro Rail Ltd.’s (KMRL) infrastructure and its connectivity to islands around Kochi / Ernakulam. Kochi is a major port city on the south-west coast of India.
Kochi’s water metro will eventually comprise 78 ferries running on 16 identified routes, connecting 10 islands via 38 different terminals. The project is the first water transport system in India to integrate with the metro and is widely expected to revolutionize water transportation and support the country’s efforts to reduce its emissions and carbon footprint.
The combination of the electric propulsion drive train, energy storage, and automation systems will significantly reduce fuel consumption, increase maneuverability, and provide reliable, uninterrupted power supply while ensuring safe, cost-effective operation of the vessels.
Siemens has selected Echandia’s LTO batteries for the project. Echandia LTO battery systems are based on Toshiba’s LTO (Lithium-Titanium-Oxide) cells.
Earlier this year, Echandia became the first company in the world to be awarded a DNV-GL Type approval certificate for an LTO battery system. DNV-GL is the world’s leading classification society for maritime battery systems. A DNV-GL certificate gives shipyards, operators and insurers confidence that Echandia’s batteries meet DNV-GL’s strict requirements.
DNV-GL awards type approval to companies that can demonstrate that their solutions meet international standards, regulations and recognized DNV-GL rules. Echandia conducted a series of tests to demonstrate compliance. These include thermal runway propagation, internal/external short circuit, forced discharge, EMC, environmental tests, software functional tests and battery system performance tests.
Source: www.greencarcongress.com
