Day 2 Thursday, 28th June 16:00
“Battery integration on diesel-electric ships through the propulsion converters’ DC-Link “
The use of batteries in electrically propelled vessels is awakening great interest. Despite of their high cost and usually low energy density for reasonable sizes and weights, significant improvements can be achieved in terms of energy efficiency, fuel consumption and emissions.
Batteries are usually connected into the vessel power system through power electronics converters. The battery converter sets can permit the operation of vessels in fully electric mode as well as they can support the Gensets for peak shaving and spinning reserve purposes in hybrid operation mode. If well managed, the possibility of using them as power sources or loads can improve significantly the energy efficiency and useful life of the Gensets.
In this presentation, different ways of connecting batteries through propulsion converters in vessel power systems are introduced and reviewed. The advantages of batteries through the propulsion converters’ DC-Link in terms of (amongst others) efficiency, redundancy and safety are highlighted. Such aspects as the better performance of the peak shaving functionalities are then presented, as well as the possibility of emulating virtual Gensets thus participating in the primary frequency and voltage control on the vessel power grid.