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All Electric Ship - The Super Platform for Tomorrow's Naval Warfare

Conference Paper · January 2010

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SECOND INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR AND EXHIBITION ON NAVAL ARMAMENTS (NAVARMS – 2010)
All Electric Ship-The Super Platform for
Tomorrow’s Naval Warfare
Venkata. R. Basam, Scientist ‘B’
Abstract— Traditional warship power system configuration
onboard has dedicated power sources for propulsion and ship
electrical power generation. Due to change in the philosophy of naval
warfare, more unconventional weapon systems, weapon launchers and
sensors are gaining increasing importance. In order to meet the power
requirements of such new breed of systems along with electrical
drives, drastic increase in electrical power requirement is envisaged in
futuristic warships. This trend of increasing power demands onboard
warships along with superior mission requirements like: survivability,
re-configurability, efficiency, stealth, compactness, flexibility and
intelligent automatic control seeks a total change in traditional ship
system configuration. In order to meet the above mentioned stringent
requirements of the future warships without any undue implications
on space, weight and performance requirements, the concept of All
Electric Ship has evolved as the best possible option. In this paper, the
importance of All Electric Ship in the future naval warfare and the
current status of various technologies involved have been discussed.
Also the importance of advanced simulation and test facilities for the
design & analysis of ship power system and integration of subsystems
is highlighted.
Index Terms— AES, IEPS, RTDS, EM Gun
I. INTRODUCTION
T he emerging trend for more unconventional weapons,
sensors and sophisticated electro-magnetic systems
onboard the warship is projecting a demand for electrical
power which is exceedingly more than the propulsive power
demand [1]. Examples for such systems which are leading to
increased electrical power demands are: high energy LASER
weapon, electro-magnetic gun, electro-magnetic assisted
aircraft launcher, advanced weapon launcher, high resolution
and range RADAR, sensors and electrical ship board
auxiliary systems etc. Figure.1 shows the trend of increasing
weapon power demands on warships.
1.4
Propulsion
1.2
Weapon
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0 In AES, the increasing power demands of future warships
DD-963 DDG-51 DDG-1000 Future Notional
Combatant
Figure.1: Trend of onboard warship power demands [1]
Apart from the changing power demands, other stringent
1
Amitava Das, Scientist ‘G’
requirements like design flexibility, improved efficiency,
modularity, signature reduction, zonal survivability, auto re-
configurability, improved reliability, reduced life cycle costs
and flexibility for up-gradation needs a conceptual change in
warship configuration. Reason for demand in paradigm shift
can be explained as followed. Traditional ship power system
configuration has dedicated Prime Movers for propulsion
and ship electrical power generation. To meet with above
mentioned combat and the resulting ship power demands, it
seems possible to add extra power sources on board the ship.
But the resulting increase in space and weight budgets
makes this an impracticable design solution with the
traditional ship power system configuration. Further, the
traditional propulsion system with long drive trains is a very
big constraint for flexibility in ship system design aspect.
The pneumatic/mechanical auxiliary systems onboard need
frequent maintenance and have limitations on the extent of
automation possibilities. Zonal survivability and combat
sustainability needs implementation of the Zonal Power
Distribution systems (ZED) and the Auto Reconfiguration
concepts which will be difficult to devise in the case of
traditional ship power system. Also, the increasing demand
for signature reduction of warships is a tough objective to
accomplish with the traditional ship system configuration
[2]. Hence a total reconfiguration of ship board power
system becomes imperative. The All Electric Ship (AES) is
a concept evolving as the most appropriate solution for the
changing trends and demands of the offshore battle scenario.
In the following sections of this paper, the concept of
AES is described as a solution for the emerging trends in the
future naval warfare. Major subsystems of AES, technology
options for each subsystem and their current technology
status is elaborated. Requirement for advanced simulation
facilities for the design and analysis of ship board power
system is discussed. Also the need for intense research and
sophisticated test facilities to realize the concept of AES is
highlighted.
II. ALL ELECTRIC SHIP CONCEPT
will be met by an Integrated Electric Power System (IEPS)
that takes massive power which is essential to drive the ship
and instantly directs the power to weapon loads as and when
required without having to build separate generation plants.
The IEPS also will optimize the utilization of power sources
SECOND INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR AND EXHIBITION ON NAVAL ARMAMENTS (NAVARMS – 2010) 2

thereby solving the problem of space and weight constraints warship to AES in order to compete with the foreseen
in the design. IEPS can be implemented in ZED structure. scenario of superior mission requirements [8]. In this line,
ZED architecture of IEPS improves the AES survivability by the TYPE-45 destroyer of United Kingdom (UK) is being
providing with the flexibility to isolate faulty/damaged part hailed as world’s first All Electric front line ship. This with a
of power system from healthy part and reconfiguring full load displacement of 8000 Tons and speed of 29 Knots
immediately to establish the combat readiness. That means was commissioned in July 2009. Features of this world’s
the IEPS along with ZED architecture will improve the first All Electric front line ship are listed in Table.1 below.
survivability and combat sustainability of the warships by in Table.1: Features of TYPE-45 All Electric Front line destroyer ship [8]
time isolation of faulty part of power system from the
healthy part [3]. Figure.2 visualizes the advantages of AES Feature TYPE-45 Destroyer
Primary Role Anti-Air warfare
over a traditional warship from combat sustainability point
Displacement 8000 Tons
of view.
Speed 29 Knots
Prime Contractor BAE Systems
Two no’s of WR-21 GTs from Rolls Royce &
COMBAT SHIPWIDE COMBAT RECOVERY OF
READINESS CASUALTY ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS SUPPORT AND Power Source Northrop Grumman, Two no’s of 21.5MW
OUTAGE SHUTDOWN COMBAT
alternators from ALSTOM
Two no’s of 21MW ALSTOM Advanced
Time Line Milli Seconds Seconds
Seconds Minutes + Propulsion Motors
Induction Motors with seawater cooling
Three channel pin-vent air cooled PWM VSI by
Traditional All Electric Ship Converter Drive
ALSTOM
MV electric N/W 4160V, 60Hz
COMBAT ISOLATION OF
LV electric N/W 450V, 60Hz
READINESS DAMAGE AND RECONFIGURE
CASUALTY
ELECTRIC PLANT

United States of America (USA) is also developing an All

Time Line < 100 Milli Seconds Electric Destroyer ship whose commissioning is planned by
2015. Features of this DDG-1000 destroyer are better than
Figure.2: Combat Sustainability comparison of traditional & All Electric its TYPE-45 counterpart both from the view point of ship
Ship [3] systems and weapon systems. Table.2 lists the features of
Also the recent and on-going developments in the area of this world’s second All Electric front line ship.
Permanent Magnets and High Temperature Superconductors Table.2: Features of DDG-1000 All Electric Front line destroyer ship [8]
(HTS) are giving further hope for highly efficient, compact
Feature DDG-1000 Destroyer
power generation and propulsion drives onboard AES. Primary Role Multi-mission ship with focus on land attack
Developments in the area of Permanent Magnets and HTS Displacement 14564 Tons
are also happening at an accelerated pace. Permanent Speed 30 Knots
Magnet and HTS electrical machines are being proved even Prime Contractor General Dynamics
in MW power levels [4] [5]. Further, the advanced electrical Two no’s of T-30 GTs from Rolls Royce, Two
Power Source
propulsion techniques like electrical POD, RIM driven no’s of 36MW alternators from ALSTOM
propulsion and water-jet propulsion will help to enhance the Two no’s of 36MW ALSTOM Advanced
Propulsion Motors
stealth, maneuverability and propulsive efficiency aspects of Induction Motors
Three channel pin-vent air cooled VSI drive by
electrical warships [1]. In AES, power source can be located Converter Drive
ALSTOM
anywhere in the ship providing lot of flexibility from ship
MV electric N/W 4160V, 60Hz
design point of view. Also the highly sophisticated electro- LV electric N/W DC Zonal Distribution
magnetic auxiliary systems optimize the space, reduce the
maintenance and helps in the implementation of a complete
Many of the technologies involved in the development of
intelligent automatic control onboard. In the light of above
AES are still maturing towards the idle requirements of the
specialties and merits, AES concept is being conceived by
concept.
various technical communities from domains like weapons,
electrical power systems and naval architecture, as most III. ALL ELECTRIC SHIP SUBSYSTEMS
suitable solution for the futuristic naval warfare scenario. Major subsystems in an AES and the current status of
Designers will be able to take significant advantage of
respective technologies of a notional AES are discussed in
various electric ship topologies and can continue to adapt
this section. Major subsystems in an AES are: Power Source,
with the flexibility available for up gradations [6]. Research
in the area of AES is also very encouraging and providing a Motor/Generator, Power Electronic systems, Onboard
drive towards AES realization. Electrical ship technologies Energy Storage Modules, Power distribution system,
are also identified by IEEE technical activities board as one Combat systems and Automation system.
of the ten emerging technological challenges that cut across A. Power source
the fields of multiple IEEE societies as well as engineering Diesel engines may generally be preferred only as an
societies outside the IEEE [7]. Inspired by this, navies are auxiliary power source in AES, even though technologically
seriously considering the transformation from traditional it is highly matured. GE LM2500 is a highly proven GT and
SECOND INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR AND EXHIBITION ON NAVAL ARMAMENTS (NAVARMS – 2010) 3

being considered as most appropriate as power source for Table.5: Technology status of All Electric Ship Power Electronics [3] [9]
AES. Rolls-Royce Inter-cooled and re-cooperated GT is Technology Current Status
more advanced but not proved sufficiently for ship board IGBT Ready to support
applications. Fuel cell technology is a very prospective area MOS Controlled
to be considered as a power source but it has to go a long Understood. Affordability yet to be demonstrated
Thyristors
way to prove itself for ship board high power applications. High power
Further development required
Table.3 given below lists the technology maturity levels of levels
different power sources for AES. Power density Further development required

Table.3: Technology status of All Electric Ship Power Sources [3] [9]
D. On Board Energy Storage Modules (ESM)
Technology Current Status
Diesel Engine Ready to support To enable the AES power system to survive from critical
situations like power outage, ESM are very important. ESM
Conventional GT Ready to support
also play a vital role in maintaining the stability of on board
Advanced GT Understood. Scaling & affordability to be power systems during pulse loads like firing of EM Gun or
demonstrated
Launching of Air Craft or Firing of missiles etc. The stored
Fuel Cells Further development is required
energy in ESM helps the onboard power system to manage
the situation of sudden loads. Table.6 lists the technology
B. Motor/Generator status of different energy storage options that can be
considered on board the electric ship.
Different options that are available for electrical machines
onboard the AES are: Synchronous, Induction, Permanent Table.6: Technology status of All Electric Ship ESM [9]
Magnet, HTS Synchronous and HTS Homopolar machines. Technology Current Status
From power to weight ratio point of view, the above listed Lead-acid Batteries Ready to support
machines falls in the ascending order of merit. But if Fly Wheels Ready to support. Disadvantageous from energy
considered from the technology maturity point of view, they density and response time point of view.
fall in the descending order of merit. Table.4 below lists the Li-ion Batteries Understood. Disadvantageous from cost and
current technology status of various on board electrical technology maturity point of view.
machine options. Super Capacitors Ready to support. Disadvantageous from energy
density and discharge point of view.
Table.4: Technology status of All Electric Ship Electric Machines [3] [9]
Super Conducting Further development is required.
Technology Current Status Magnetic Energy
Storage
Synchronous M/C Ready to support

Induction M/C Ready to support

E. Power Distribution System
Permanent Understood. Scaling and affordability yet to be
Magnet M/C demonstrated TYPE-45 destroyer power distribution N/W is all AC
HTS synchronous Further development required where as in DDG-1000 destroyer ship, AC/DC power
HTS Homopolar Further development required distribution is being implemented considering the relative
merits of DC distribution [8]. ZEDS architecture of ship
board power systems ensures sustainable power supply in
For the DDG-1000 destroyer of USA, initially Permanent order to improve the survivability. Super conducting
Magnet electrical machine was considered for propulsion technology for transformers and conductors in ship board
motor. But due to the technology maturity problems power system N/W which will make the system more
involved particularly in the MW power range, Office of compact and efficient is also being considered for AES.
Naval Research has changed the decision and ALSTOM ‘American Superconductor’ is known as one of the major
made Advanced Induction Motors are being considered now. contributors for this kind of research. Table.7 lists the
C. Power Electronic systems technology status of various critical aspects of ship board
electric power system.
Popular drive technologies which are being considered
Table.7: Technology status of All Electric Ship Distribution N/W [9]
for AES are based on following techniques [10].
Technology Current status

Pulse Width Modulation
DC architecture Ready to support

Cyclo Conversion
DC Breakers Understood. Scaling and

Synchro Conversion
affordability to be demonstrated.
Even though the above listed techniques are sufficiently AC Superconducting Further development required
matured for implementation in ship board applications, the transformer
technological maturity of high power switches which will be Superconducting conductors Further development required
used in the implementation of the above schemes need to be Insulation Understood. Scaling and
further assessed. Table.5 below lists the concerns about the affordability to be demonstrated.
current technology status power switches used in the drives.
SECOND INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR AND EXHIBITION ON NAVAL ARMAMENTS (NAVARMS – 2010)
F. Combat Systems
Latest onboard combat systems based on electrical energy
are: EM Gun, High Energy LASER, Electro- Magnetic
Aircraft Launchers and Advanced Weapon Launchers etc.
EM Gun basically exists in the form of Rail Gun and Coil
Gun. Office of Naval Research is currently developing a
64MJ Rail Gun with a targeted muzzle velocity of mach-7,
which can inflict damage through kinetic energy with no
requirement of warhead or propellant [11]. Office of Naval
Research has also invested $25 million on Free Electron
Launcher (FEL) program in 2009 which is being developed
by BOING Company. Weapons like FEL and EM Gun are
promising to transform the future naval warfare by providing
ultra-precise and increased magazine depths. Electro-
magnetic aircraft launchers works by linear electric motor
drives instead of steam pistons in case of traditional systems.
Electro-magnetic aircraft launcher weighs less, occupies lees
and requires less maintenance. Advanced Weapon
Launchers systems are also relatively meritorious from their
conventional counter parts from weight, space and
maintenance aspects. All the above technologies are still
under development and may need further improvements.
G. Automation System [12]
The automation system on AES follows an Integrated
Reconfigurable Intelligent System (IRIS) methodology. The
IRIS methodology will integrate the design of complex
systems such as Propulsion. Navigation, Weapons, Radar,
Fire detection, Fluid system & damage control, N/W
operations and auxiliary subsystems into a single system.
IRIS makes the ship ‘self monitoring’, ‘self assessing’ ‘self
reacting’. IRIS acquires inputs from all subsystems &
sensors and either automatically diagnoses & acts on the best
course of action or will pass the information to a decision
maker. IRIS segregates the decision making responsibilities
into different levels in the N/W architecture. Figure.3 below
shows the hierarchical structure of the decision making in
IRIS.
CONTROL PMS
INFORMATION
ELMS
RM
Figure.3: Decision making hierarchy of the concept ‘IRIS’ [12]
The Platform Management System (PMS) monitors the
power generation units and uses the real time data gathered
by the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)
system to perform automated energy management. ‘PMS’
also takes decisions on relocating power to vital loads for
improved war fighting capability. Applications like ‘State
Estimation’, ‘Optimal Power flow’, ‘Contingency study’ etc.
4
can also be part of ‘PMS’. Electrical Load Management
System (ELMS) monitors and controls all loads and buses
on distribution N/W by communicating with Remote
Modules (RM). ‘ELMS’ will identify faults and accordingly
re-routes the power there by enabling comprehensive fault
management. “ELMS’ intelligently carries out the N/W
auto-reconfiguration in case of faults and other similar
contingency. ‘RM’ will monitor and collect information for
the SCADA setup within its territory that comprises
subsystems like converters, Circuit breakers, loads etc. The
embedded system with in ‘RM’ facilitates ‘data collection’,
‘monitoring’ and subsystem control.
IV. DESIGN APPROACHES AND RESEARCH DEMANDS
In the previous section, various subsystems of AES and
the current status of technologies involved are elaborated.
But the integration of these subsystems is much more
involved and tedious design task. The IEPS which integrates
various subsystems described in the previous section on to
an offshore platform is complex in nature compared to any
utility power system example. The complexity comes in due
to the involved high voltages in a compact space, AC/DC
power N/W, pulse loads and harmonics etc. Moreover the
reliability requirements of IEPS are more stringent than a
utility power system case because the ship board power
system should serve the combat requirements till the last
moment.
A new school of thought called ‘Model is specification’
has to be adopted to establish a basis for any prototype IEPS
specification development. This needs extensive modeling
and simulation facilities. Modeling and simulation tools will
facilitate the study of design alternatives before going for
any prototype system development. Two such famous off-
line modeling and simulation tools for the power systems
design are ‘MATLAB®’ and ‘PSCAD®’. Even though the
ship board power system is not too big, the large number of
fast switching high power electronic components will cause
considerable computational burden. Further, closely coupled
nature of the ship board systems inhibits the kind of
assumptions and simplifications that will be made while
simulating utility power systems. As per J. Langston et al., a
simplified ship board power system with four generators,
two propulsion systems, single rectifier and two DC/DC
buck converters supplying a resistive load with a simulation
step size 50µs for 60 seconds in PSCAD® on a computer
with 3.4 GHz PENTIUM® processor and 1 GB RAM takes
about 4 hours of execution time [13]. Since a new ship board
IEPS design may need hundreds of simulation runs, it would
become difficult to fulfill such requirements with off-line
simulation tools. Hence it is necessary to make use of
computationally powerful and efficient simulation tools such
as the Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS®) for ship board
power system design & analysis.
RTDS® setup makes number of Digital Signal Processors
to operate in parallel and provides a number of analog,
digital I/O ports for interfacing hardware to the simulation.
The RTDS® system is also scalable allowing subsystems to
be simulated on individual racks. Larger systems can be
SECOND INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR AND EXHIBITION ON NAVAL ARMAMENTS (NAVARMS – 2010)
simulated by connecting together subsystems on individual
racks. Simulation cases of ship power system have to be
constructed and downloaded to the simulator using custom
software. These kinds of high speed modeling & simulation
facilities are very vital for the design of IEPS and to analyze
the integration of subsystems through Hardware in the Loop
simulations (HILS).
Along with the high speed simulation facilities for design
of IEPS, it is also necessary to have appropriate test beds
integral with the simulation setup. These test beds may need
high power dynamometers and power converters in order to
test and analyze the dynamic performance of subsystems and
components in a real time environment with the help of HIL
Simulations. HIL based validation may be necessary to
experimentally check the subsystem before integrating them
on to the ship board power system. Test facilities should also
help demonstrating advanced propulsion, control and
protection schemes.
Further, the kind of research effort and institutional
support needed for realizing the concept of the AES may be
enormous. An example in support to the above statement is
Center for Advanced Power Systems (CAPS) established in
Florida State University, Florida and sponsored by Office of
Naval Research, USA. ‘CAPS’ is focused on research and
education related to the application of latest technologies to
power systems. ‘CAPS’ is lead in the Electric Ship Research
and Development Consortium (ESRDC) formed by Office of
Naval Research to bring together efforts from a number of
research institutions in the development of electric ship
related research. Other members of the ESRDC include the
‘Center for Electro-mechanics’, ‘University of south
Carolina’, ‘Mississippi State University’ and ‘Advanced
Technology Institute’ [14]. Formulation of such research
consortiums along with capable industry partnership seems
very vital in order to make the concept of AES as a reality.
V. CONCLUSIONS
An overview of AES with its various facets has been
broadly dealt in this paper. The advantages of such a system
are brought out to emphasize the marked advantages over a
conventional warship. Emerging high definition electrical
machines will form the backbone of AES. Stealthy features
are the added advantages of AES which is the order of the
day. Since the cost involved in developing AES is more,
advanced simulation facilities have to be used which will
reduce design iterations. Indian industry is fairly geared up
to take on the development of advanced propulsion motors.
So is the scenario of power electronic drives and advanced
simulation studies. In view of the congenial industrial
scenario, development of AES can be accomplished. Naval
Science and Technological Laboratory, Vizag on its part is
keen on such development in the near future.
VI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the
encouragement given for this work by Dr. V. Bhujanga Rao,
Distinguished Scientist and Director, Naval Science and
Technological Laboratory, Vizag.
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VII. REFERENCES
[1] Capt. Norbert Doerry, USN, “Next Generation Integrated Power
Systems for the Future Fleet,” IEEE Electrical Ship Technologies
Symposium, Baltimore, April 2009, pp.1-20.
[2] Rick Hepburn. P.E, “Why a Naval Architect Likes an Electric
Ship,”International Symposium on Power Electronics, Electrical
Drives, Automation and Motion, Ischia, Italy 2008, pp.5913–593.
[3] G. M. Jebsen,” Electrical Warship Technology Overview,” Office of
Naval Research, USA, May 2001.
[4] S. Woodruff, H. Boenig, F. Bogdan, T. Fikse, L. Petersen, M.
Sloderbeck, G. Snitchler and M. Steurer,“Testing a 5MW High-
Temperature Superconducting Propulsion Motor,”IEEE Electric ship
technologies symposium, July 2005,pp.206-213.
[5] C. Lewis, “The Advanced Induction Motor”, IEEE Power
Engineering Society Summer Meeting, 2002, Vol.1, pp.250-253.
[6] R. E. Hebner, “Electric Ship Power System – Research at the
University of Texas at Austin,” IEEE Electric Ship Technologies
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[7] Y. Khersonsky, N. Hingorani and K.L. Peterson, “IEEE Electric Ship
Technologies Initiative,” 56th Annual Petrolium and Chemical
Industry Conference, 2009, pp.1-10.
[8] J. North, “Warship Wonder,” IETPower Engineer Journal, vol. 19,
Issue.4, Aug.-sep.2005, pp.28-33.
[9] I. R. Porche, H. H. Willis and M. Ruszkowski, “Framework for
Quantifying Uncertainty in Electric Ship Design,” RAND National
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[10] J. M. Prousalidis, N. D. Hatziargyriou and B. C. Papadias,“On
studying Ship Electric Propulsion Motor Driving Schemes,”
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[11] R. R. Burgess, “Propulsion Solutions-Electric ship initiatives offer
flexibility, increased war fighting power,” Sea Power, May 2009,
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[12] R. Jayabalan and B. Fahimi, “Naval Shipboard Power System,”
IEEE conference on Vehicle Power and Propulsion, Dearborn,
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[13] J. Langston, S. Suryanarayanan, M. Steurer, M. Andrus, S. Woodruff
and P. F. Ribeiro,“Experiences with the simulation of a Notional All-
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Electromagnetic Transients Simulator,” IEEE Power & Energy
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[14] S. J. Dale,“Ship Power System Testing and Simulation,” IEEE
Electric Ship Technologies Symposium, July 2005, pp.203-205.
BIOGRAPHIES
Venkata. R. Basam is working as scientist ‘B’ in electrical
engineering division of Naval Science and Technological
Laboratory, one of DRDO’s prestigious naval systems
laboratories. His research interests are Ship power system
modeling & simulation, virtual prototyping for design
validation of advanced machines and Computer Aided Control System
Design.
Amitava Das is scientist ‘G’ and Technology Director for
electrical engineering Division of Naval Science and Techno-
logical Laboratory of DRDO. He has initiated many projects
involving advanced electrical propulsion applications like
BLDC, Axial Flux and Pump Jet propulsor etc. His current
research interests are high power electrical propulsion and drive systems
for warship applications.