A comparative study on electrical distribution systems for the U.S. coast guard's 270-ft medium endurance cutter

Abstract

The U.S. Coast Guard's 270-ft Medium Endurance Cutter (WMEC) is a powerhouse of the Coast Guard fleet filling a critical role in defense of the homeland. While the U.S. Navy has conducted extensive research into the use of zonal DC electrical distribution systems (DCDS) for their ships, no project has analyzed the installation of DCDS on a Coast Guard cutter which has a significantly different load profile than Navy warships. In this paper, Simulink models of a zonal DCDS system for 270-ft WMEC is presented as well as the existing radial AC distribution system (ACDS) and tested with three typical WMEC operational transients. The result demonstrated than the DCDS showed greater transients, but it has much faster dynamic response owing to the introduction of power electronic converters.