Filtered Feedback Control on DC Microgrid to Power a High-Performance Battery-Based Cutter Dredger

In the marine industry, resilience and flexibility in use are among the most important targets to be attained. These two goals are even more crucial when considering specific vessels like cutter dredgers. The latter are in charge of providing the very specific function of soil removal, which constitutes a high-power load to be transiently powered from the onboard power plant. In this paper, a ring DC grid is proposed to exploit the presence of a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) in supplying the onboard loads of a dredger. An advanced control system on DC power electronics interfaces is designed to guarantee the power quality requirements while preserving the diesel units. A realistic load profile is considered in the synthesis of control functions, where a filtered feedback is adopted to optimally share the generating effort. Significant transients are discussed in order to demonstrate the control performance in managing power sources and BESS.