Impact of Marine Power System Architectures on IFEP Vessel Availability and Survivability

Abstract

In recent years Integrated Full Electric Propulsion (IFEP) has become a popular power system concept within the marine community, both for the naval and the commercial community. In this paper the authors discuss the need for a detailed investigation into the impact of different IFEP power system architectures on the availability of power and hence on the survivability of the vessel. The power system architectures considered here could relate to either a commercial or a naval vessel and include radial, ring and hybrid AC/DC arrangements.Comparative fault studies of the architectures were carried out in an attempt to make valuable observations on the survivability of a vessel. Simulation results demonstrate that the ring and hybrid AC/DC architectural contribute to a higher survivability than the radial architecture. However, there are still challenges that need to be addressed and therefore potential solutions such as fault current limiters will be considered.Index Terms-Marine technology, power distribution, power system availability, power system protection.

Mitigation against overvoltages on a DC marine electrical system

“…The damping effects of cable resistance will also be considered in this section. Figure 2 shows a simplified hybrid AC/DC network [3], with zonal power distribution in the DC section. The network consists of a large filter capacitance across the terminals of the converter, a small line resistance and inductance, and two load centres with their own associated capacitance.…”

“…This approach has a number of advantages including increased design flexibility, improved operational capability and a higher operating efficiency at low ship speeds [1], [2], [3]. A number of recent commercial and naval vessels have adopted this design approach, such as the Queen Mary 2, the LNG British Emerald [4] and the Type 45 Destroyer [5].…”

Review of network topologies and protection principles in marine and offshore applications

“…-zonal ship/platform design, which means that the network is divided in several zones in such way that operation of electrical equipment is not affected by malfunctions appearing in a different zone [6] -utilization of several distributed generators (e. g. diesel or gas-turbine driven) [8], connected to minimum 2 bus bars -flexible architecture of the network, using various CBs (Circuit Breakers) or tie-breakers, so in faulty conditions the power is transmitted using alternative paths [9] New maritime applications introduce higher generation and load levels, power electronics based consumers [9] [10], more complex networks and higher voltage levels [11]. Moreover, operation of the protective relays may be disturbed by the high start-up currents of motors [3] or by the harmonic generation of the power electronics based devices [9]. All these challenges need to be addressed by the power system protection of the maritime applications.…”

An Overview of the Application of DC Zonal Distribution System in Shipboard Integrated Power System

“…In this situation, protection with mechanical circuit breaker cannot isolate fault in a quick and effective way, partial fault affects the whole system directly, and even result in the loss of power on the whole ship. Therefore, DC zonal distribution system becomes a hot topic in recent years [2][3][4] . DC zonal distribution system is not retrogression to the original DC system, the former's core idea is that energy transmission and distribution is based on DC, and energy is converted at the user end, non-commutator AC induction motor or brushless permanent magnet motor is applied in all rotating machinery [4] .…”

“…Contrast to AC system, DC system is better in zonal distribution. Integrated power system based on DC zonal distribution system is one of the options of ship integrated power system, there are many advantages over traditional one [2][3][4] : 1) Increasing power density. 2) Simplifying and modularizing the system.…”