Reactive Power Coordination of Shipboard Power Systems in Presence of Pulsed Loads

Voltage and reactive power control is a fundamental issue in all-electric shipboard power systems (SPS). However, coordination between generation and propulsion management to match reactive power is poor in current SPS designs. This paper presents a new model predictive control based dynamic Volt/Var control scheme to control the voltage in the system. This method uses a dynamic model of the sources and loads and finds the optimal reactive control inputs to the system to minimize the voltage deviations in the future. Since this method uses prediction of the reactive demand of pulsed loads, it is able to achieve a smooth voltage profile in the SPS in presence of pulsed power loads. This method is also able to control voltage of the system during propulsion motor startup. The controller is tested in presence of high power pulsed loads in the system. The results demonstrate that the dynamic reactive controller is able to keep the voltage profile of the system smooth and within system limits.