Design of Minimum Fuel Consumption Energy Management Strategy for Hybrid Marine Vessels with Multiple Diesel Engine Generators and Energy Storage

The paper presents an analytical method for estimation of the fuel saving potential resulting from installation of energy storage on-board of marine vessels equipped with multiple diesel engine generators. The method is based on quasi-steady-state assumptions and does not require precise a-priori knowledge of the operating cycle of the vessel. The method also gives insight about the expected energy throughput of the storage system that can be directly related to its expected lifetime. Simple procedures are proposed for favorable trade-off between fuel saving and storage lifetime. The paper also shows how the off-line method can be extended to design high-level power flow control and energy management strategies for the engines and storage. Time-domain simulations with several load profiles having different characteristics are presented, showing the validity of the proposed approach.