Ship Energy Storage

Future pulsed weapon and sensors will create significant challenges to the ship’s electric power distribution system as the transient loads presented to the power distribution system can be a significant fraction of the installed capacity. The goal of this research program is to explore the design and integration of a Hybrid Energy Storage Module (HESM) that will provide a high power energy storage device that can work in conjunction with a high energy density storage medium to mitigate the impact of the pulsed loads on the ship power system. The evaluation is being conducted in the context of a high energy capacitor-based Pulse Forming Network (PFN) that is operated with a repetition rate of 12 charge/discharge cycles per minute. In reality, the PFN will be divided into multiple modules with each module served by an independent dc charging power supply; however, for this study, the PFN is represented as a single aggregated load presented to the ship’s electric power distribution system.