Power System Design Optimization for a Ferry Using Hybrid-Shaft Generators

Ferry contributing a significant amount of greenhouse gas is one of the critical vessels to be electrified. Designing a power system for a ferry with hybrid-shaft generators is different from designing a power system for other vessels because of its fixed route. More clearly, ferries repeatedly travel between their port of origin and port of destination, and before the next voyage, the battery must be recharged to the initial state so that the optimal energy management scheme can be repeatedly applied. Furthermore, the flexibility of hybrid-shaft generators, which allow more fuel saving, increases design complexity. In this paper, a mixed-integer non-linear programming problem is first formulated, and a power management algorithm with an initialization step for fulfilling the battery recharging requirement and a refinement step for minimizing the fuel consumption is proposed. The simulation results obtained from data of an actual ferry show that the proposed power management algorithm can fully recharge the battery and consumes less fuel than a rule-based power management scheme. Simulations also reveal that fuel consumption depends on available shore power, highlighting the necessity to develop charging infrastructure for practical electrification. Because of its speed, the algorithm can support hardware sizing, e.g., battery sizing.

Automated summary

This paper proposes a power management algorithm for ferries, which can achieve battery recharging and minimize fuel consumption. The simulation results show that the algorithm is more fuel-efficient compared to a rule-based management scheme.