Optimal Power Generation and Voyage Scheduling in Shipboard Power Systems Considering Load Characteristics-Based Operating Reserve Management

The current trend in the shipboard power system is a hybrid configuration with an energy storage system (ESS) integrated into the generation system, which can improve ship efficiency and enable other flexible applications. This study investigated the ship voyage and generation scheduling for hybrid (generator/ESS) configuration and implemented operating reserve management based on ship load characteristics. The optimal scheduling considers generation cost, ESS wear cost, and economic speed operation for the ship voyage. This study used mixed-integer linear programming to frame the optimization problem and also determined the operating reserve based on load types because of ship propulsion load proportion, which can take up to 90% of the total load. Analyses of the case study demonstrated that the proposed approach reduced the ship operation cost while maintaining all shipboard technical requirements and operational constraints. In addition, the ESS utilization for the scheduling is analyzed to achieve operating cost reduction while extending its expected lifespan to its calendar life.