Ship-to-shore collaborations: Integrating research of shipboard power systems into today's power engineering research activities

Abstract

Electric power programs within Electrical and Computer Engineering departments at universities have traditionally relied on interactions with electric utilities and manufacturers as its customer base for both students and research activities. With deregulation and changes within the electric utility business, research funds and projects with these organizations has been limited. In the last five to ten years, the Office of Naval Research has provided millions of research dollars to universities to study many power system, power electronic and high voltage engineering challenges related to shipboard power systems. This research supports the future allelectric ship program that provides a platform for increased control and utilization of electric power systems to improve ship features of reconfiguration and survivability. While shipboard power systems and utility systems have different constraints, there are areas of overlap where research activities can benefit both platforms. This paper discusses the opportunities for combining shipboard power system and electric utility power system research activities for the benefit of both systems. It discusses the major differences and similarities in technical challenges and how collaborative research involving both types of systems is improving the state-of-the-art in electric power research. Several examples of cross-over research will be discussed. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2007.