Statistical Analysis for Shipboard Electrical Power Plant Design

The traditional electric power load analysis (EPLA) uses a very basic routine of assigning demand factors to each connected electric load, then summing these to arrive at an estimated power plant load. This method is overly simplistic, gives a false sense of certainty, and does not accurately reflect vessel operations. This paper will describe an alternative to traditional methods of determining ratings and configurations for electric power plants during vessel concept and preliminary design. This method uses statistical methods to calculate a range of possible power plant demand. Resulting data can be used to evaluate power plant configurations with respect to design risk, vessel operating profiles, and potential limitations. The ability to better evaluate the complete range of required electric power across all operating profiles increases in importance as vessel power plants become more sophisticated with the introduction of variable speed generation, battery/hybrid power systems, DC power distribution, and distributed load centers.