The present master's degree thesis gives a comprehensive presentation of the Power Management system, which is one of the main parts of the Ship Integrated Control System. Another main part of the Ship Integrated Control System is the Alarm and Monitoring System, which is also briefly described in this degree.
The Power Management System is a crucial part of automation and propulsion systems, especially on ships equipped with diesel-electric propulsion. The main purpose of the Power Management System is to ensure the undisturbed operation of the Power System, which is achieved by providing sufficient available power in the network. This system continuously monitors the amount of available power in the network in order to prevent a blackout. Therefore, in case of a decrease in the available power in the network, the system will start the next generator in the start sequence, synchronize it, close its breaker and connect it to the network. In the opposite case, this system will de-load the generator step by step and then stop it in order to optimize fuel consumption. In addition to the automatic starting and stopping of generators, this system has a load shedding function. In case of a sudden load increase, this function gradually disconnects the consumers according to their priority.
The master’s degree thesis is divided into seven parts. The first part introduces diesel-electric propulsion, its main parts, features, characteristics and its redundancy, which characterizes each form of propulsion. The second part briefly describes different types of machinery concepts that are most suitable as the prime movers of electric propulsion. Queen Mary 2 power plant is also briefly described here. The third part presents the structure of the Ship Integrated Control System in which the Power Management System is placed. The fourth part gives a detailed overview of the functionality of the Power Management System, together with a presentation of different types of consumers on the ship and their priority. A Blackout, its dynamics and the functions that prevent Blackouts are explained in the fifth part. The sixth part deals with the transient response of different prime movers to a sudden load change. Different methods that improve their transient response are presented and described. Finally, in the last section some functions of the Power Management System are presented through simulations, which show their importance and how they work in practice on the ship.
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