More coordination and fewer emissions

Anyone interested in using terminal capacity efficiently and planning and coordinating ship calls in advance can rely on the bundling of all the necessary information across all companies. That was also the case in Hamburg, where the Hamburg Vessel Coordination Center (HVCC) opened its doors in 2009 and has coordinated large-ship and feeder traffic ever since as well as inland vessel traffic since 2015.

bremenports, EUROGATE and the HVCC launched the joint project “Digital Weser” last year to create a comparable smart solution for Bremerhaven and the Outer Weser. The aim is to better exploit existing terminal capacity with transparent, continuously updated information, optimise resource planning, plan ship calls in advance and thus also reduce fuel consumption.

The idea is ultimately to develop a comprehensive platform. “The data collected at the ports such as berths and processing times will be combined with environmental information – from water levels to wind speeds – and traffic data provided by the ports and used for different purposes, including intelligent management and coordination of ship calls,” explains Daniel Becker, Head of IT at bremenports. “For example, it would be possible to inform an approaching ship early on that they have the option to reduce their speed by two knots on the open North Sea to avoid a wait before berthing. This would reduce fuel consumption and therefore emissions.”

Navigators, shipowners, terminals, Bremer Schiffsmeldedienst, Wasserstraßen- und Schifffahrtsamt (WAS) Weser-Jade-Nordsee, Hansestadt Bremisches Hafenamt and a variety of maritime service providers worked together for a period of one and a half years to develop optimisation potential for ship calls on the Outer Weser. The preliminary study was completed with an operating concept in May.

“Originally, the project was only supposed to include the Outer Weser, but has since been expanded to Bremen,” reports Becker. The preliminary study was then expanded to include control of shipping traffic up to Bremen, and the participants based in Nordenham, Brake and Bremen more intensively incorporated. For that reason, the project has since been dubbed “Digital Weser”.

The collaboration could potentially expand even beyond that. A collaboration project between seaports in northern Germany could ultimately expand approach management to include Wilhelmshaven and Hamburg. (cb)