Control Strategy and Architecture for Integrating Distributed Fuel Cells on board Large Cruise Ships

Cruise ships are among the most demanding vessels typology due to their operational profile and the presence of passengers on board. They are characterized by a significant amount of installed power necessary for the electric propulsion system and hotel services. Distributed power generation seems to be in principle a suitable solution, worth to be investigated, in order to pursue a superior flexibility and reliability, while complying with the applicable requirements for pollution reduction. At the same time, a superior electrical system complexity has to be taken into account as the inevitable downside. This is turn implies that a suitable power control strategy has to be included since the early ship design stage, in order to better capture the advantages of the distributed power generation system. In this paper the complete electrical system model of a cruise shipboard power plant with distributed generation is developed together with a methodology for its control strategy.