Shipboard power restored for active duty

Network reconfiguration for restoration in a military shipboard power system is a very important task that is performed in order to restore loads as a result of battle damage or system faults. This article features an expert-system-based reconfiguration methodology for load restoration in shipboard power systems. The power system considered in the present study is based on the layout profile of a US surface combatant ship. The methodology developed will determine whether the loads that lost supply are restorable. When considering loads, it gives precedence to high priority loads. It also determines if there is any violation of current constraints of any cables and voltage constraints at load nodes. If the load is restorable, as suggested by an expert system, and there is no violation of any constraints, then the load is said to be restorable and the operation sequence required in restoring that load would be given as the output. A CAD drawing of the power system and a database of the system information has been developed using a geographic information system (GIS). A software tool incorporating failure assessment and expert system restoration methodology was developed using Visual C++, Multilogic Exsys Developer, Alternate Transients Program (ATP), and Microsoft Access. Microstation has been used for GIS. Various fault cases were designed, and the developed tool was used to run them and perform expert system restoration.