Energy management of aircraft electrical systems - state of the art and further directions

This review paper summarizes state-of-the-art energy management methods applied to electrical systems of large aircraft. An electrical load management based on fixed priorities of the loads is considered a conventional implementation as applied in today's aircraft systems. It can cut and reconnect loads depending on their importance. The advantages and disadvantages of such a system are presented. Further implementations are depicted that are able to eliminate certain drawbacks of such a typical load management. Most promising is the exploitation of so-called slow responding loads which can be handled like an electrical storage. The optimization potential on future energy management functions is finally discussed and conclusions are drawn.

I. Introduction

For decades there has been an ongoing trend toward more electric aircraft (MEA) like the Boeing 787 or Airbus A380 (see[1], [2], [3]);]); recently, the trend has even included all-electric aircraft (AEA). Electrically driven systems such as ice protection, environmental control system (ECS), brakes, or primary flight control system actuators have been used instead of their conventional counterparts[4].