Power Quality Analysis for Ship-Photovoltaic Power System: A Case Study

Abstract

Due to the seriousness of oceanic environmental pollution and the strict restrictions imposed by marine pollution protocol, the photovoltaic (PV) system has been tried to be implemented in traditional ships that use fossil fuel for power generation. This paper investigates the impacts of a large PV system on the ship power system. The installation of PV system of various operation modes on ship power system will significantly affect the power quality of ship grid. In this paper, one practical ship-PV power system of the COSCO TENGFEI vehicle carrier is selected for study. Various power quality issues like the voltage unbalance factor, voltage deviation, frequency deviation, harmonic ratio as well as total harmonic distortion (THD) are investigated and calculated by the calculation methods suggested by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and ship classification societies. The results will be compared with the relative standards to demonstrate the feasibility of the PV system to be installed in the ship power system.

Keywords:

• PV system
• ship grid
• ship photovoltaic power system
• power quality

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Hubei Provincial Leading High Talent Training Program Funded Project [grant number HBSTD [2012]86] and the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province [grant number 2014CFB369].

Notes on contributors

Yuanchao Qiu

Yuanchao Qiu received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in 2014 and 2016 respectively, from the School of Energy and Power Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China, where he is currently working toward the Ph.D degrees. His main research interest is focused on the power quality in the green ship and energy storage system optimization.

Chengqing Yuan

Chengqing Yuan received the Ph.D. degrees from the School of Energy and Power Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China, in 2005. He was a research assistant in City University of Hong Kong, China, from Apr. 2002 to Jun. 2002. He was a research officer in James Cook University, Australia from 2002 to 2005. Presently, he is a professor at Wuhan University of Technology. His research is focused on marine new energy, tribology and condition monitoring.

Yuwei Sun

Yuwei Sun received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from the School of Energy and Power Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China, in 2007, 2010 and 2013, respectively. Presently, he is an associate professor at Wuhan University of Technology. His research is focused on renewable energy technologies applied in green ship and the characterization of green materials for various applications.

Xujing Tang

Xujing Tang received the M.S. degrees from the School of Energy and Power Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China, in 2002. Presently, he is an associate professor at Wuhan University of Technology. His research is focused on renewable energy technologies applied in green ship.