German transport company modernises ferries w. Delomatic-4

Being one of the largest transport companies at the Lake Constance (known as Bodensee in German) in Germany, Stadtwerke Konstanz GmbH is dependent on having a top-tuned fleet to transport the many passengers that every year visit the region to explore the beautiful surroundings.

During a service visit at the ferry Tabor, DEIF’s project engineer Simon H. Pedersen talked with the crew about upgrading the onboard power management system as it had the discontinued Delomatic 3 system installed. “Stadtwerke Konstanz transport millions of passengers every year and continuing with the old system would be risky as we no longer would be able to provide them support and spare parts for the system”, Simon explains.

Stadtwerke Konstanz is a public utility company at the Lake Constance and offers a wide range of local services such as electricity, natural gas and bus and ferry transport. Stadtwerke Konstanz operates 30 passenger ships and 8 car ferries transporting millions of passengers and vehicles yearly.

Obsolete power management system replaced

Sometime after Simon’s visit, Stadtwerke experienced some issues onboard Tabor, and it was decided that Solution Manager Per Ole Sørensen should pay a visit. During the visit, he made a pre-inspection that formed basis for a quote on an upgrade from Delomatic 3 to Delomatic 4 power management system.

Stadtwerke Konstanz accepted the offer and decided to upgrade the PMS onboard the two ferries, Kreuzlingen and Tabor. Based on the pre-inspection, DEIF’s engineers made a solution comprising a complete Delomatic 4 power management system controlling four diesel generators, one harbour generator and two AGI 415 touch screens from which the captain can control and monitor the power management system. Simon and the team made all necessary calculations, made wiring diagrams and updated the documentation.

Futureproof, new system – yet familiar

The new system was installed during planned maintenance and to avoid causing inconvenience to the passengers in form of rescheduled timetables, the two ferries were retrofitted one at the time.

Simon and his colleague support engineer Jens Martin Roslev went to Germany to replace the existing system with the Delomatic 4 system. Jens Martin and Simon de-installed the Delomatic-3 system, installed the new hardware and introduced the crew to the new system and touch screens onboard Tabor. The Delomatic 4 system fitted the space in the existing switchboard, but the system also is based on the same philosophy and therefore it required a minimum of re-wiring and the existing protocol to the alarm- and monitoring system was adjusted to match.

A large effort was made to make similar settings as on the previous system to make the crew feel confident about operating the system. The touch screens make it much easier to get an overview of the power management system and to operate the system.

After a couple of weeks, Simon and Jens Martin once again went to Germany to perform the same procedure on the second ferry, M/F Kreuzlingen. The retrofit was completed, and the crew was instructed in using the new system and the touch screens. Now the two ferries again are ready to transporting passengers and cars across Lake Constance for many years.