Configuration size optimization of gas-electric hybrid power systems on ships considering energy density and engine load response

Abstract

System component sizes and their energy densities impact the long-term ship energy efficiency and economics, whereas power source load response influences system transient behavior, posing challenges to system design and energy management when clean fuels are used onboard. In this paper, a novel component sizing method is proposed for integrating reciprocating gas engines and energy storage systems (ESS) on ships, considering energy density and load response simultaneously. By specifying gas engine powers and ESS capacities as normalized optimization variables by ship scales, this method optimizes them based on the A. J. Klee multi-index evaluation and single-objective particle swarm optimization (PSO). Energy densities of engines and ESS were introduced to demonstrate the trade-off between the power-splitting and increased system mass and hull resistance. The engine load response was incorporated into the rule-based energy management strategy (EMS) to limit power ramps. This method was examined in the case study by taking four cruise ships as examples. It can be found that implementing the proposed evaluation-based optimization can improve cruise ship energy efficiency while maintaining reliability over the voyage. It is possible to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions by up to 17.1% and 14.8%, respectively. The minimum system reliability can be increased from 0.025 to 0.475 during transients. Furthermore, ship life-cycle costs can be reduced compared to the original design method, and the payback period for gas engines, ESS, and fuel tanks can be shortened to less than six years. Among the various cases, the definition of normalized optimization variables broadens the applicability of this method away from a specific ship, allowing it to be applied to ships of various tonnages and types.