A flexible structure for an efficient electric ship distribution system

This paper proposes a change in shipboard electric power system: to modify the structure of its distribution network, leaving the traditional, essentially radial, scheme and using another more flexible one, which will be shown here, in order to get quickly the necessary network reconfigurations, according to the load changes, both in normal and failure situations. Then, as regards intelligent automatic management of this distribution system, a control algorithm logic is presented, which allows to determinate the various optimum configurations in simple way, without hard analytic tools. Moreover a particular application of the above mentioned ideas is shown, regarding the primary power network of a ferry ship. Finally some observations about the improvement of the system reliability by utilization of new circuit breakers based on solid state devices and of mineral isolation cables; then the conclusions about reached results and the possible future developments of the system proposed are drawn