Electrical propulsion is not a novel concept in marine systems. However, the availability of power electronic converters has proved to be the Key Enabling Technology for electrification of large ships. This paper starts with a summary of EP drives, which led to the birth of all-electric ships. Electric power generation and control systems are then presented, which make it possible to exploit the integrated electrical power system. To ease comprehension of the issues in designing such a system, its conventional design process is given. Then, the reasons that are pushing ahead the research in the shipboard power systems sector are discussed. The need for research in the design methods area is demonstrated through an overview of the latest results of technological research. Finally, a summary of the most significant results on the design tools research is given, including early stage design, dependable-oriented design, and the improvements achievable through software simulators and hardware-in-the-loop are discussed. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate why research on design methods is as important as a technological one, on the basis of the needs concerning the design, integration, and management of future “integrated electrical and electronic power systems” (power systems with power conversion quota approaching 100%).

The concept of an all-electric ship, while offering unprecedented advantages from the point of view of efficiency and flexibility of operation, has introduced new challenges in terms of stability and power flow control. The advent of a full power electronics power system has raised new questions from the point of view of system dynamics, particularly when dealing with the new medium-voltage direct current distribution. The overall goal of guaranteeing a secure operation of the power system has brought researchers to consider two main approaches: reducing the dynamics of the large load to operate in a range of dynamics compatible with traditional generation systems, or making the generator set smarter through its power electronics interface. This paper compares these approaches to stable operation, focusing on the latter considered more in line with the progress of technology and in general more appealing.

Nowadays, the Medium Voltage Direct Current (MVDC) technology represents a new possibility to renew the shipboard power system of large All Electric Ships (e.g. cruise liners or military vessels.). This new concept is capable of achieving valued advantages, such as simplified system integration, modularity and system efficiency, together with an expected reduction of the space devoted to technical system. For a shipyard interested in keeping a leading position in the market, such benefits will be the main strength points. Therefore, the MVDC Large Ship research program (presented in the paper) has been carried out trying to meet with the industrial needs of one of the partners, whose expertise deeply influenced the research and was deemed indispensable: Fincantieri Shipyard.

Ships have witnessed an astounding evolution in the last 200 years. The introduction of the combustion engine has started an ever-faster change, both in the performance and functionality given by the ships. From the steam-powered ships of the early 1800s to the modern diesel-electric ships, the improvements were significant and increasingly rapid. In particular, in the last 30 years, the design of ships has made a huge leap ahead, both in terms of efficiency of the entire vessel and new functions given to the owners. This is due to the progressive electrification that has occurred.

The present paper is a review on efficiency issues related to three important sectors of the transportation systems: railways, electrical vehicles, and marine. For the three sectors, the authors, in reference of their knowledge and research area, show the results of a wide literature analysis, in order to highlight which are the measures, in terms of technological solutions and management techniques, which are recently investigated and implemented, for improving the three transportation systems, from the point of view of efficiency. In particular, for the railway transportation sector, a wide analysis is presented, detecting which are the main measures adopted for improving the efficiency, related to the power systems for supplying trains and to the train traffic control, with a focus on the storage system integration. For electric road vehicles the analysis is focused on the plug-in electrical vehicles and on the infrastructure for their recharge, with an emphasis on how these vehicles can support the grid, e.g., through Vehicle to Grid (V2G) applications. Finally, for the marine transport service the review is related to the propulsion systems and on how the different solutions can meet the objective of efficiency.

The All Electric Ship concept is becoming a standard for ships with large power requirements. At present, the design of the onboard power system (i.e. the IPS – Integrated Power System) is done through a well-proven process. This process rely on historical data and trial-and-error procedures developed in nearly 30 years of design experience to address the ship’s complexity. Nowadays, the evolution in IPSs is pushed towards by the introduction of more demanding requirements, which can be complied with only by using new power system architectures and introducing onboard innovative subsystems. However, introducing innovation by means of a design process defined on the basis of past experience is inefficient. Thus, new design paradigms are needed. In this regard, concepts and tools from other technical areas can be used to achieve a “dependable design process” able to ease the introduction of innovation in ships’ IPSs. In this paper, after a brief presentation of the conventional process and the actual drivers pushing towards its revolution, the dependable design process is proposed. The latter integrates both dependability enforcing techniques and dynamic power system modeling. Insights about the process integration in the overall ship design process are given, while an application example is used to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.