Ship electrical load analysis and power generation optimisation to reduce operational costs

Nowadays the amount of electrical power generated on-board ships is drastically increased, especially for the All Electric Ships (AES) where all the energy needed is supplied by the electrical power system. In this context, the traditional methods to calculate the power demand and select the size of the generation system have become inadequate, since they are based on very dated assumptions. Aim of this paper is to present an optimum problem in order to correctly and efficiently size the generation system. The power demanded will be calculated using the traditional approach based on Load Factors. The optimum problem will be solved using the Genetic Algorithms, and provide the optimal size, load factors and unit commitment for each generator in each ship operative scenario.