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Power and automation technology group ABB has won a long-term service contract from Carnival Corporation to maintain and upgrade ABB's Azipod equipment over the next 15 years for 20 ships in their fleet, cutting costs by as much as $1 million a year per ship.

Carnival is the world's largest cruise ship operator and has 20 cruise vessels with Azipod propulsion systems. ABB's energy efficient Azipod is said to use less fuel than traditional systems, providing improved manoeuvrability in all operating conditions. The upgrades are projected to improve the already high energy efficiency of Azipod units by 2.5 to 4 percent.

"Customers in all industries are looking at ways to reduce overall lifecycle costs and make such costs more predictable, while continuing to improve equipment performance," said Veli-Matti Reinikkala, head of ABB's Process Automation division. "We provide a full portfolio of services, including ongoing technology upgrades and dependable maintenance support to help extend the life of equipment, and ensure that it runs at the highest energy efficiency levels possible."

The service contract covers technology and energy efficiency upgrades for all Azipod systems and propulsion condition monitoring for all ships, and other system equipment maintenance.

The contract includes technology upgrades such as the newly designed Azipod optimized fin shape, which receives water flow from the propeller at a new, less acute angle that redirects the flow more efficiently and Azipod Dynamic Optimizer, a software tool designed to control the pod toe angle and provide greater fuel savings for large vessels.