Maersk Supply Service Orders Wärtsilä Battery for Maersk Minder AHTS Vessel

Danish offshore support vessel owner Maersk Supply Service has ordered a battery pack for one of its M-class vessels, the Anchor Handling Tug Supply vessel Maersk Minder, as part of its plan to reduce the company's carbon intensity by 50% across its fleet in 2030.

Mark Handin, COO of Maersk Supply Service said: "Maersk Supply Service is taking an active role in decarbonizing the offshore support vessel sector. This requires both behavioral changes in the way we operate our vessels, as well as technological upgrades to our fleet. With this new hybrid battery solution upgrade, we take a significant step forward in our path to further reduce the emissions from our diesel-electric vessels. 

"The use of hybrid batteries/energy storage systems has proven to be an effective solution within the platform supply vessel (PSV) sector; however, we believe that we are on the leading edge in terms of bringing this technology into the Anchor-Handling Tug Supply (AHTS) segment. To the best of our knowledge, this will be the world’s first AHTS hybrid battery conversion,” says

Maersk Supply Service picked Wärtsilä as the hybrid battery supplier, citing Wärtsilä's battery's extended battery life and innovative design which allows for reduced vessel emissions, reduced maintenance, and increased operational performance.

For its first vessel battery installation, Maersk Supply Service selected the Maersk Minder AHTS, of SALT design, built for deepwater anchor handling and oilfield operations.

"Powered by five medium speed engines with total output of more than 23,000 horsepower, a fuel-efficient and flexible hybrid propulsion system and fixed-pitch on all side thrusters, the vessel provides good fuel economy, low emissions and excellent station keeping capabilities (ERN 4 x 99)," MSS' vessel description reads.

"The vessel will operate in the North Sea from Q3 2021, with plans to install the battery in late 2021 or early 2022, depending on delivery time. The concept is designed to meet our customers' demand for lower carbon vessels," the company said.

Allan H. Rasmussen, Head of Technical Organisation, and responsible for the decarbonization initiatives in Maersk Supply Service said the new battery pack was expected to decrease the fuel consumption and thereby reduce CO2 emissions by 15%. 

"The responsibilities for anchor handling vessels vary considerably from heavy tows of offshore floating units to subsea work in Dynamic Positioning mode. With the specialized tasks and variety of operational capabilities, it is important that we thoroughly test the vessel setup utilising the batteries and validate the CO2 savings during the first few months of operations,” Rasmussen adds.

Kenneth Bang, Account Manager from Wärtsilä:"The Wärtsilä Low Loss Hybrid battery system (LLH) seamlessly integrates with a conventional engine, like Maersk Minder. Our Low Loss Hybrid offers significant efficiency improvement by running the engines on optimal load and absorbing many of the load fluctuations through batteries. We see this renewable LLH solution as a great fit for Anchor Handling Tug Supply Vessels."

According to Maersk Supply Service, the company has since 2018, reduced its carbon intensity by more than 13% across its fleet. 

To remind,  Maersk Supply Service said earlier this month it would reflag one of its anchor handling vessels to the Norwegian flag, hire Norwegian crew and set up an office in Bergen. The plan is to have its first vessel ready for operation in Norwegian water during summer 2021, the company said. 

Offshore Engineer asked Maersk Supply Service at the time which vessel exactly would be sent to Norway.

"We expect it to be Maersk Minder," a Maersk Supply Service spokesperson said.