Hidden Failures in Shipboard Electrical Integrated Propulsion Plants

Abstract

The differences between shipboard and land based power systems are explored to support the main focus of this work. A model was developed for simulating hidden failures on shipboard integrated propulsion plants, IPP. The model was then used to evaluate the segregation of the IPP high voltage, HV, buses in a similar fashion as a shipboard firemain. The HV buses were segregated when loss of propulsion power would put the ship as risk. This new treatment reduces the region of vulnerability by providing a high impedance boundary that limits the effects of a hidden failure of a current magnitude or differential based protective element, without the installation of any additional hardware or software. It is shown that this protection could be further improved through the use of a simple adaptive protection scheme that disarms unneeded protective elements in certain configurations.