General reconfiguration methodology for AC radial shipboard power systems

The electric power systems of ships supply energy to sophisticated systems for weapons, communications, navigation and operation. In this new era of the US Navy with goals to reduce manning and increase system survivability, automatic reconfiguration of the electrical network in a shipboard power system is critical for quickly restoring service to a section of the power system to survive battle damage. Also, reconfiguration is critical to meet operational requirements such as changing from one mission to another, avoiding possible overloading of the system or removing equipment for maintenance. In this paper, a general reconfiguration methodology, using heuristics, is presented that will reconfigure a given set of loads, satisfying the operational requirements and priorities of loads. The proposed method is illustrated with an example on a large shipboard power system that is based on the actual surface combatant ship