AYK Energy marks battery renewal project on Svitzer's diesel-electric tug quartet as complete

Andorra’s marine battery manufacturer AYK Energy has wrapped up a battery renewal deal for a quartet of hybrid tugs owned by Denmark-based towage service provider Svitzer.

The units in question are the 33-meter-long diesel-electric tugboats presently operating at Chevron Australia’s Gorgon LNG terminal in Barrow Island, Western Australia, AYK Energy has noted.

According to the company’s founder Chris Kruger, the 80-tonne bollard-pull azimuthing stern drive (ASD) vessels—named Svitzer Euro, Svitzer Perentie, Svitzer Boodie, and Svitzer Dugong—were specifically built for the Gorgon terminal in 2012. The old batteries were now replaced as they were already at the end of their lifecycle.

To be precise, the battery renewal project saw the old batteries on the tugs recycled and new ones installed on each of the units. As part of the deal, it is understood that AYK Energy built more than 5 MWh of battery power, which is equal to 1.3 MWh on each ship.

Kruger further elaborated that the new lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which were manufactured at the company’s plant in Zhuhai, China (opened in 2023), could have “twice as much energy