Dependable oriented design of complex integrated power systems on ships

The increasing complexity of ship's Integrated Power Systems (IPSs) led to the need of a review of conventional design process. Moreover, several stakeholders influence ship design, each of them aiming to protect its own interests, in particular when responsibility of accidents has to be defined. Dependability could be the tool to modify conventional design, transforming it into a dependability oriented design, as to properly manage the inherent system's complexity avoiding future liabilities. In addition to that, dependability could become a new index recognized by all the involved subjects, capable of establishing design quality. This paper addresses motivations to include dependability into internal processes for all the stakeholders involved in ship design process, as well as the motivations to demonstrate internal dependability levels to others subjects. Subsequently, a notional dependability oriented design process, tailored on IPS design, is presented, together with a discussion on the influence of every stakeholder on design steps. This with the aim of explaining dependability impact on design and to demonstrate how modifying conventional process important advantages could be achieved.