The parameters for determining Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) have been put under the microscope at the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Marine Environment Protection Committee’s (MEPC) 69th session.
Discussions were provoked by the presentation of the Interim Report of the Correspondence Group on EEDI review required under regulation 21.6 of MARPOL Annex VI by Japan.
One of the comments from within the plenary session was that ships that have not used the EEDI have managed to keep the same energy efficiency as those that have.
The Clean Shipping Coalition (CSC) stated that over-compliance is occurring, with over a third of ships built in 2015 surpassing the EEDI Phase 3 requirements. Even without using technologies and slow steaming methods, energy efficiency of ships is still improving.
CSC also stated that market changes are driving efficiency gains with those ships built to adhere to the EEDI and those ships not both achieving the same energy efficiency. Although they did not state that the EEDI is not having a direct impact, CSC suggested that different ship types should have different requirements for energy efficiency and asked the committee group to consider this. They also drew on the importance of making sure that gains in the EEDI are still kept moving forwards as there is some risk that ship design could go back to how it was previously if energy efficiency gains are not being met through the direct use of the EEDI. CSC suggested that the committee group continues its work and looks into the phase 2 requirements for future decisions.
Finland agreed with CSC’s comments, suggesting that safety should also be considered and reviewed by the correspondence group, including the use of power correction factors for ice class ships. Interferry supported Finland, highlighting that cargoes and Ro-Ros in particular are customised for EEDI with Turkey proposing that dimension parameters in data for EEDI are included to contribute to data collection for technology improvement purposes.
The discussion was stopped by the MEPC Chairman Mr Arsenio Dominguez, but is set to grace the floor again at a later time this week.
The official MEPC 69 agenda item read:
Japan as coordinator of the correspondence group provides an interim report on the work of the group relating to the current status of technological developments and efficiency improvements in response to the implementation of the MARPOL EEDI requirements, with a view to considering if it would be appropriate to make regulatory amendments to future targets for required reductions in attained EEDI values.
In summary, the group proposes at this time that:
- The current regulatory time periods and reduction rates for attained EEDI should be retained;
- More descriptive information on innovative technologies should be included in the IMO EEDI database;
- Length Breadth and draft should be included in the database. Alternatively dimensional ratios could be included; and
- A revised coefficient for ice-class ships should be included in the Guidelines on the method of calculation of the attained Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) for new ships (resolution MEPC.245(66))
More detailed information relating to the case studies carried out by members of the group is provided in paper MEPC 69/INF.9
Ship Efficiency Review will be reporting from MEPC 69 this week. For breaking news and insight please follow articles tagged “MEPC 69” on Shipefficiencyreview.com or follow #MEPC69 on Twitter.
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