Energy management of aircraft electrical systems - state of the art and further directions

This review paper summarizes state-of-the-art energy management methods applied to electrical systems of large aircraft. An electrical load management based on fixed priorities of the loads is considered a conventional implementation as applied in today's aircraft systems. It can cut and reconnect loads depending on their importance. The advantages and disadvantages of such a system are presented. Further implementations are depicted that are able to eliminate certain drawbacks of such a typical load management. Most promising is the exploitation of so-called slow responding loads which can be handled like an electrical storage. The optimization potential on future energy management functions is finally discussed and conclusions are drawn.