Towards Safer, Smarter and Greener Ships Using Hybrid Marine Power Plants

Abstract

This chapter gives an overview of research activities carried out at NTNU AMOS in relation to hybrid marine power plants enabling safer, smarter and greener ships. Recently electrical power plants with a set of diesel-generator sets segregated on several power buses have become the preferred solution for ships with a variation in operational profile and corresponding power demands. Examples of such ships are dynamically positioned (DP) vessels with electric power plants in the range of 10-80 MW used in the offshore oil and gas industry for various service, drilling, intervention and production operations, see Figure 1. The operations are characterised as safety-critical and will take place all-year with large variations in the environmental loads acting on the ship due to wind, waves, ocean currents, and recently more operations in sea-ice. Electrical power plants have also become the preferred solution for cruise ships, ferries, navy ships, LNG tankers, and icebreakers. The electric energy production may be powered by a hybrid marine power plant constituting of diesel engines, gas engines, and integrated with energy storage devices (ESD) such as banks of batteries. By proper design and control systems significant fuel savings can be achieved making the ships greener and safer.