Fast Coordination of Power Electronic Converters for Energy Routing in Shipboard Power Systems

A long-term goal of future naval shipboard power systems is the ability to manage energy flow with sufficient flexibility to accommodate future platform requirements such as, better survivability, continuity, and support of pulsed and other demanding loads. To attain this vision of   shipboard energy management, shipboard power and energy management systems must coordinate operation of all major components in real-time. The primary components of a shipboard power system are the generators, energy storage modules, and increasingly power electronics that interface those sources and main load centers to the system. Flexible management of energy flow throughout shipboard distribution systems can be realized by automated coordination of multiple power electronic converters along with storage and generation systems.  

Use of power converters in power distribution systems has continuously increased due to continued development of the power electronics building blocks (PEBB) concept which reduces cost and increasing reliability of converters. Recent developments in SiC power devices are yielding PEBBs with far greater switching frequencies than Si based devices resulting in an order of magnitude reduction of the time scales as compared to converter systems utilizing conventional IGBT based PEBBs. In addition there have also been advancements in highly modularized converter systems with hundreds of PEBBs such as the Modular Multilevel Converter. Both of those trends have resulted in the continued evolution of the Universal Controller Architecture which attempts to standardize control interfaces for modular power electronic systems.  Further development of interface definitions and increasing communication and computational capabilities of new FPGA based controllers provides opportunities beyond simply supporting SiC PEBBs. Fast control coordination across the system using an appropriate communication architecture provides a degree of energy management not previously realizable in shipboard power systems. The paper will present recent research results in networked control architectures for power electronic converter coordination and control. It will demonstrate that current FPGA and gigabit speed serial communication technologies allow for a very high degree of energy flow control.