Naval Smart Grid Preliminary Integration onboard Electric Ships

Innovation in platform systems, as well as requirements on energy efficiency, are pushing towards the naval vessels' electrification. In fact, the power required by new platform systems, sensors, and new subsystems (for supporting the latter) is so big to make either full or hybrid electric-propelled ships the new target for all but the smallest vessels. This makes the power system a critical system, whose onboard integration requires a significant effort. Several different power system architectures (e.g., ac vs dc, or radial vs. zonal) can be used to power the loads, exploiting different pros and cons depending on their peculiarities. While most of the focus is usually on topics regarding electric and survivability performance, the integrability of such architectures in a ship is less addressed. In this paper, three power system configurations (ac radial, de radial, dc zonal) for a multirole frigate are designed. Their correct onboard integration is then assessed, by means of 3D parametric models, and comparisons in terms of volumes and weights of all the main electrical components are provided. Moreover, a discussion about the effect of the proposed configurations on the overall ship arrangement is given, pointing out some useful considerations about the opportunity of decoupling power system and hull's design processes, provided that some conditions are verified.