Risk Assessment of a Battery-Powered High-Speed Ferry Using Formal Safety Assessment

Fully electric ships have been widely developed, investigated and evaluated by the maritime industry as a potential solution to respond to the emissions control required according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO). This study aims at presenting a novel approach to evaluate the safety level of a battery-powered high speed catamaran. Following the Formal Safety Assessment procedure, the risk assessment of the considered ship was conducted leading to the identification of the involved hazards along with the estimation of their frequency and consequences thus allowing for the identification of the most severe hazards. Fault tree analysis is carried out for and the identified top events followed by an event tree analysis to estimate the risk and safety level of the vessel. Furthermore, a cost-benefit assessment is conducted to evaluate the financial impact of selected risk control options. The derived results indicate that the application of battery power systems for high speed ferries exhibits low and acceptable accident frequencies. It is also supported the current regulation to carry out mandatory risk assessment for battery-powered ships.