Energy management for hybrid and fully electric vessels via a multi-objective Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy

A key factor towards zero-emission shipping is the adoption of electric propulsion with hybrid power sources. The heterogeneous power sources of modern electric vessels require optimal energy management systems, as conventional rule-based control in hybrid energy systems may result in suboptimal solutions with limited flexibility. Advanced optimal control strategies offer a promising avenue to address this issue. This paper presents a novel control strategy based on the Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy for a dual-fuel full-electric vessel operating with diesel engines and hydrogen fuel cells taking into account both fuel cost and NOx emissions. The effectiveness of the developed controllers is evaluated against a benchmark derived from state-of-the-art strategies in a simulation study using real-world data. The results highlight the controller's performance, as well as the operator's choice by selection of weights for the objectives. The proposed control strategy achieves nearly 2 % fuel savings compared to a single-objective rule-based controller. It also exploits the potential for up to 45 % reductions in NOx emissions. When both objectives are combined, the controller still delivers over 0.5 % fuel savings while reducing NOx emissions by nearly 15 %. If a financial cost is assigned to emissions, the total operational cost savings increase to more than 4 %.