EPS confirms AI benefits in implementing its sustainability strategy

November 14, 2024, by Naida Hakirevic Prevljak

Singapore-based ship management company Eastern Pacific Shipping (EPS) has been using and assessing artificial intelligence (AI) technology to cut fuel consumption and overall environmental impact.

Illustration. Courtesy of EPS/DeepSea Technologies.

Greek AI-led maritime technology firm DeepSea Technologies revealed it has delivered weekly fuel consumption forecasts “accurate to within 1%” after a six-month project with EPS. Measured against a baseline of standard data inputs, improved data quality reduced the inaccuracy of weekly fuel consumption forecasts to 0.8%.

Across the business, the ship management company used “highly accurate” vessel behaviour models, supporting improved vessel operations and maintenance scheduling, and enabling chartering teams to provide more reliable speed and consumption warranties to customers.

The transformation was made possible by having real-time sensor data from EPS’ vessels, coupled with DeepSea’s AI-driven Cassandra platform, which provides real-time insights to help the Singaporean player streamline fuel consumption, ensure regulatory compliance, and reduce environmental impact.

Working together, EPS and DeepSea have driven technical advancements in the EPS fleet and developed “innovative” approaches to model validation that support EPS’s strategic roadmap for digitalization and decarbonization. The fleet owner has prioritized developing a robust data pipeline and rigorous validation process to improve fleet optimization approaches.

Over six months in 2024, DeepSea and EPS built and implemented advanced digital twins, offering an up-to-date understanding of vessel behaviour, and validating them through a combination of empirical and statistical observations and methods to confirm model accuracy.

By deploying the AI-based technology, EPS can now evaluate vessel performance with precision, generating predictive insights that inform performance-based decision-making across its 300-ship fleet of tankers, bulk carriers, PCTCs, containerships, and gas carriers.

Using AI technology, EPS expects to enhance vessel and fleet performance monitoring, improve reaction time to inefficiencies and drive forward its decarbonisation efforts.

“This result is testament to the fact that the technology now exists to model vessel behaviour incredibly accurately. We can finally say that it’s a solved problem. The industry is quickly realising that the availability and quality of data is now the limiting factor,” Konstantinos Kyriakopoulos, CEO and Co-founder of DeepSea Technologies, commented.

“Performance is not the work of a single department – it’s about giving the entire organisation the tools to make data-driven decisions. Good information enables good business,” Pavlos Karagiannidis, Fleet Optimisation Manager at Eastern Pacific Shipping, explained, adding that the platform will help EPS achieve new levels of operational efficiency and advance its sustainability goals.

In related news, a report published in September this year found that the maritime AI market has seen an explosive expansion, nearly tripling in size.

The research estimated that the maritime artificial intelligence market is now valued at $4.13 billion, with a projected five-year compound annual growth rate of 23%. Compared to the data published by Thetius in 2023, this marks a substantial increase from last year’s valuation of $1.47 billion, underscoring the rapid adoption of AI technologies across the sector.