GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

Large battery based electrical energy storage systems offer the highest energy conversion efficiencies. Within fully electric ships, notably ferries, batteries are the most energy efficient method to achieve climate neutrality. Within ICE hybrid vessels batteries increase total efficiency, cutting engine peak power demands, providing a “spinning reserve” and enabling the possibility of zero emission port entries and coastal passages utilising only battery power.

Projects will develop solutions for the on-board integration (including the optimisation of the electrical distribution grid) and control of batteries which will maximise the operational flexibility of different ships under electric-driven zero-emission operations, focussing on an optimal operation and the longest lifetime and lowest weight of the electrical systems and its key components. While ensuring the ship’s energy balance and efficiency, solutions need to address one of these two cases:

• The hybrid arrangement for zero local pollution (long and complete discharge cycles), or
• The full electric arrangement, plug-in charging (charging strategy and battery size adapted to route).

Strategies for safe energy management systems with sufficient safety margins need to be addressed.

Projects will also investigate (e.g. through performance modelling) different optimisation strategies for the large capacity batteries on board and will need to prove the applicability to several ship types and operational profiles.