By the navigation season of 2018, Volga Shipping OJSC (a company of UCL Holding) has fitted four more of its Volgo-Don ships with fuel monitoring systems under the company’s energy efficiency programme. As of today, 20 ships of the company are fitted with systems allowing for remote monitoring of fuel on board and ship operation regime.
Volga Shipping Company is permanently updating its fuel consumption rates for each type of ships: push tugs, vessels of Project RSD44 and Volgo-Don type. Repair of Volgo-Don ships’ hulls and removing sea-crust from their underwater part with further application of an antifouling paint considerably decreases water resistance and contributes to reduction of fuel and lubes consumption.
In the navigation season of 2017, operation of Volga Shipping Company’s 19 repaired vessels was regulated by new norms requiring 10-pct reduction of fuel consumption; in 2018, 14 vessels with newly repaired hulls will operate under reduced norms. Those measures let the company reduce fuel consumption by 500 tonnes last year which resulted in saving of more than RUB 17 million.
According to the company’s Heat Engineering Service, the year of 2017 also saw additional saving of 148 tonnes of fuel. Net economic savings (actual fuel consumption as compared with norms) came from improvement of the operation level and compliance with the operation regime.
Under the Collective Agreement (in the part of energy efficiency programme), Volga Shipping Company continued the practice of awarding crews with bonuses for fuel savings.