Optimal Planning and Operation Management of a Ship Electrical Power System with Energy Storage System

Next generation power management at all scales is highly relying on the efficient scheduling and operation of different energy sources to maximize efficiency and utility. The ability to schedule and modulate the energy storage options within energy systems can also lead to more efficient use of the generating units. This optimal planning and operation management strategy becomes increasingly important for off-grid systems that operate independently of the main utility, such as microgrids or power systems on marine vessels. This work extends the principles of optimal planning and economic dispatch problems to shipboard systems where some means of generation and storage are also schedulable. First, the question of whether or how much energy storage to include into the system is addressed. Both the storage power rating in MW and the capacity in MWh are optimized. Then, optimal operating strategy for the proposed plan is derived based on the solution from a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem. Simulation results showed that including well-sized energy storage options together with optimal operation management of generating units can improve the economic operation of the test system while meeting the system’s constraints.