Augmenting E-ship power system evaluation and converter controller design by means of real-time hardware-in-loop simulation

This paper evaluates the performance of an industrial power electronic building block (PEBB) controller in a large scale all electric ship power system by means of real-time hardware in the loop (RT-HIL) simulation. As an example relevant to future all electric navy ships, transients originating from the charging circuit of a pulse power load integrated with the prolusion motor drive and its impact on the system are studied. Different solutions to mitigate the impact by coordinating the power sharing between the pulse load´s energy storage system and the ship propulsion motor drive are proposed and evaluated. The second part of the paper discusses how the RT-HTL tool can be used for system-wide performance optimization. Experimental results show the effectiveness of this method in finding the optimal parameter setting for the voltage loop control. It is concluded that due to distinct advantages of the RT-HTL method over conventional (off-line) simulations for system response analysis as well as for performance optimization, RT-HTL shall be employed more rigorously for electric ship system designs in the future.