The UK P&I Club highlights sudden loss of power as a cause of claims

News Release U.K. P&I Club Thomas Miller(Americas)Inc. October 2, 2012

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The UK P&I Club’s
latest Risk Focus bulletin highlights the issue of sudden loss of power, a
problem highlighted by incidents during and after the switching to lower sulphur
fuels that are now mandated in certain coastal regions. In the bulletin, the
Club highlights causes of sudden loss of power and proposes mitigating
procedures that ships’ crew should adopt.
 
The Club reveals that
main engine failures or electrical blackouts now amount to 7% of its third party
claims property damage in US$ terms. Many were enormously expensive and in some
cases amounted to millions of dollars. Ships effectively out of control as a
result of these problems have caused extensive damage to berths, locks, bridges,
navigational marks, loading arms, cranes and gantries as well as moored ships.
Costly collision and grounding claims can similarly be caused by these
failures.
 
Concern about these
rising claims prompted the Club to initiate a data collection exercise by the UK
Club’s risk assessors and a detailed analysis of more than 700 claims.  The
resulting title “Risk Focus: Loss of Power” is the third review born from the
Club’s innovative “Bowtie” risk management system to be published.
 
It is no exaggeration
to suggest that main engine failures and blackouts tend to occur most regularly
at the point in a voyage where the ship is at its most vulnerable. In confined
waters or entering and leaving port, the stable loads, which will generally
prevail with the ship on passage, are disturbed. There is additionally some
evidence that compliance with the low sulphur fuel regulations and changing from
one grade of fuel to another may have exacerbated these problems.
 
Reports from pilots, operating in
emission control areas where fuel grade changes have been implemented, indicate
that these problems have become quite widespread, noting that ships regularly
seem to be experiencing power losses, invariably at critical times in their
manoeuvres and which are attributed to ‘fuel problems’. In the Club’s recent
Loss Prevention Bulletin 785-09/11(fuel switching), the Club alerted its Members
to warnings from the US Coast Guard, which had just enforced its own Emission Control Area (ECA) sulphur
limits, noting a marked increase in incidents after vessels lost
propulsion. The USCG has linked many of these incidents to vessels operating on
marine distillate fuels.
 
The Club states that
the vulnerability of ships to third party property claims has also tended to
increase as a result of the ‘self-sufficiency’ of modern vessels, the provision
of lateral thrusters tending to persuade operators to minimise their dependence
upon tug assistance in port waters. Thus, where in an earlier era a vessel
experiencing mechanical difficulties would be merely held safely in position by
assisting tugs, a single tug in attendance may not be able to intervene
sufficiently with a large ship suffering a blackout or main engine failure at a
critical point in the manoeuvres.
 
The consequences of
main engine failures or blackouts can be little short of disastrous, in terms of
the enormous third party property damage claims which can result. An entire
canal system or waterway could be put out of action as a result of an out of
control ship damaging a lock or bridge, while months of expensive inactivity
could be suffered should a specialist berth with bulk loaders or gantries be
damaged by a ship. The costs of ships rendered inactive as a result of third
party damage can be substantial as can all claims from collisions and groundings
attributable to such causes.
 
The Club’s analysis of
more than 700 claims provides ample evidence that these problems are not merely
anecdotal, as the graphical presentation of large third party property claims
contained in the bulletin illustrates. Engine failures, steering failures,
failure of bow thruster or blackouts (which may well be connected) amounts to
around 7% of the whole.
 
Evidence has been
provided by a twelve month exercise by the Club’s in-house assessors employing a
questionnaire during their routine ship visits, which was designed to identify
and highlight problems experienced aboard the Club’s entered vessels.
Altogether, 249 ships’ crews were questioned during this investigation about
their experience with blackouts, main engine failures and fuel switching
problems.
 
The Club urges better
communication between deck officers and engineers. Around three quarters of all
chief engineers questioned reported blackouts caused by starting bow thrusters
and deck machinery such as mooring winches or cranes with insufficient
electrical power being available. It is clearly not always realised that the
starting current of electrical motors can be several times the full ‘on load’
current and starting large motors can sometimes cause circuit breakers to trip
and lead to blackouts. While many modern ships have in-built safety features to
prevent this happening, it is still a sensible precaution to have routines in
place to ensure that adequate generating power is available before starting
large electrical motors.
 
Engineers also need to
warn the bridge of depleted air bottles. Excessive numbers of engine
starts/stops during manoeuvring will deplete pressure in the main engine start
tanks which can result in loss of control of the vessel at critical times, such
as when docking, due to the engine failing to start.  Since sudden loss of
power is essentially a matter for the engineers to deal with, many of the UK
Club’s recommendations are directed towards the engineroom team.
 
A shortage of fuel
supply to the generating engines accounted for 64 (16%) of reported blackouts,
with a high proportion of these attributed to blocked fuel filters. Engineers
need to be more thorough when cleaning filters and be aware that if a vessel
changes over from higher sulphur fuel (HFO), when marine gas oil is introduced
into the system it may act like a solvent, releasing any asphaltenes which then
collect in the fuel filters/strainers and clog them.
 
As the Club says, an
extending network of ECAs around the world may well see the problems multiplying
for those aboard ship. For example, it was reported that 60% of ships took up to
12 hours to change the main engine over from one type of fuel to
another.
 
Of course the old favourite ‘human
error’ has its part to play, featuring in 11% of main engine manoeuvring
failures. Frequently it is as simple as “I pressed the wrong button” but it’s
hard to get that information out of any ship’s officer!
 
The UK Club’s innovative risk
management scheme utilises a Bowtie approach to identify the various threats to
the smooth, i.e. claim-free, running of their Members’ ships.   By
application of this concept to ships, the Club has identified seven primary risk
hazards; 76 common threats, which if not contained could cause an incident; and
450 controls which need to be in place and effective if the threats are to be
contained. 
 
The Club has applied its Bowtie
methodology, which identifies ‘threats’ to safe operation, to this loss of power
issue. The Risk Focus booklet details the consequences and controls and sets out
areas of risk and minimising the occurrence of incidents.   A full
Bowtie chart with all the threats can be provided on request.
 
The UK Club works with its Member
shipowners and technical managers to identify, conducting reviews onboard to
identify those areas which may cause claims.  The managers of the UK Club,
Thomas Miller, have access to an incomparable amount of claims data drawn from
extensive analysis of previous incidents over more than 20 years.  This has
enabled the Club to identify ‘threats’, ‘consequences’ and ‘controls’, the
foundations of developing Bowtie reports on individual
vessels.</DIV></BODY></HTML>