The ship’s safety management system did not have adequate controls to manage the risk of a complete power failure due to generators being inadvertently left in manual mode during manoeuvring operations.
Hartmann Gas Carriers introduced new guidelines, procedures and associated checklists to mitigate the risk of total power failures on board its ships, including power failures caused by generators being inadvertently left in manual mode during manoeuvring operations. The ATSB assessed this action as having adequately addressed the safety issue.
Hartmann Gas Carriers risk-assessed potential failure modes associated with its ships’ power management systems and established additional controls to prevent total power failures. The shipboard safety management system(s) has been amended to include guidelines for blackout prevention and procedures requiring generators to be set for automatic load sharing before manoeuvring.
Pre-departure and arrival checklists for the engine room and bridge were amended to include verification of generator mode status. To supplement these updates, a power demand matrix has been developed to specify the minimum number of generators required to be online for each operational mode.
In addition, the company has introduced targeted training for watchkeeping engineers on critical power management and monitoring tasks, along with enhanced bridge and engine room information exchange protocols, as further controls against power failures.
