Development of a PLC-based functional test simulator for vessel power management system

Abstract

Ships typically use diesel generators (DGs) are power sources. However, the recent trend is moving towards various alternative power sources to save fuel and prevent environmental pollution. Existing power management system (PMS) test facilities can perform limited testing of these alternative power sources because of limitations in capacity, size, and configuration. JIG-type and actual main switchboard based simulators have been developed to overcome these challenges; however, they exhibit limited performance. We developed a PLC-based test simulator to compensate for the shortcomings of existing simulators and simulate various types of ship power grids in one system. A PLC can be applied in a power management system because of to its diverse extended functions, shortened implementation time, and ease of implementation. PMSIM-V2 is a PLC-based simulator that simulates the configurations of four types of ship power grids. Functions for generators, ACB, heavy consumers, and power calculations are programmed with addon instructions in the form of function blocks for simulating each device. PMSIM-V2 equipped with this add-on instruction is used to test the PMS function by generating the status and power information of each device based on the control signal of the PMS. The PMS tested using the PLC-based simulator PMSIM-V2 is currently being supplied and operated on several ships.