A Multi-Vessel Universal Shore-to-Ship Charging System: Configuration and Control Architecture

This paper proposes a universal Shore-to-Ship Charging (S2SC) concept for multi-vessel onshore power supply and charging of onboard batteries. One of the main challenges of existing S2SC systems is the lack of interoperability between shore-side charging systems and onboard power system configurations. To address this issue, the proposed S2SC concept is designed to provide charging to multiple ships with various onboard configurations and vessel missions. To reduce the impacts of grid outage events and grid capacity limitations on the charging performance, an On-Shore Battery (OSB) unit is considered. This OSB is connected directly to a common dc bus, without a dedicated OSB converter to ensure a cost-effective solution. Furthermore, the power converters are designated to serve multiple functions while forming an integrated configuration. This can enable increased utilization of the infrastructure. Moreover, a charging management system is introduced as a high-level controller to deliver stable, controllable, and prioritized shore power to multiple vessels. This high-level controller regulates the OSB power and State-of-Charge (SoC) while ensuring the charging service during grid outages and limited grid capacity conditions. As a proof of concept, the complete model of a S2SC designed for supplying four different vessels is simulated and the control performance is validated via a series of case studies.