Reduction of Fuel Consumption on Hybrid Marine Power Plants by Strategic Loading With Energy Storage Devices

Recent advances in energy storage devices (ESDs) technology have enabled new guidance strategies for power generation and distribution on hybrid marine power plants, supported by new class regulations. In this paper, a new model to calculate the fuel saving and emission reduction potential is derived based on the ESD maximum charge/discharge rate, engine efficiency, and specific fuel oil consumption (SFOC) curve. Several cases were analyzed with generator disconnection and also without it. Spline approximation for the discrete fuel oil consumption curve is used for numerical solution and later optimized using the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker method. A second approach is proposed, using linear interpolation, reducing the optimization process computational time. It is shown that fuel savings can be increased and emissions reduced by charging and discharging the energy storage device. This is denoted as strategic loading according to the proposed model. The cases with highest potential for fuel saving are shown to be cases where generators are disconnected.