The IET

Join a forward-looking webinar featuring industry and academic experts exploring emerging challenges and opportunities in this evolving field. Through short presentations and a live Q&A, attendees can engage directly with speakers and gain insights to inspire innovation and collaboration. Timed alongside the Farnborough International Airshow (20th to 24 July), the session offers a chance to connect with a wider audience and contribute to key industry discussions. It aims to inform future initiatives, including a thought leadership paper and follow-on workshop, while positioning the IET at the forefront of technology and professional development conversations.

Decarbonisation of the maritime sector is driving a transition from conventional AC power systems to DC electrification, enabled by advances in efficiency, controllability, and integration of low-carbon technologies. We have completed a research project demonstrating the technical viability of hybrid energy storage systems combining batteries, supercapacitors, and superconducting magnetic energy storage to balance energy and power demands in shipboard microgrids. Building on this work, ongoing research focuses on power architectures based on primary and secondary DC grids for large vessels. This has improved understanding of DC fault conditions and short-circuit behaviour in shipboard microgrids, informing the performance and protection requirements of DC solid-state circuit breakers. A dedicated experimental test rig has also been developed to characterise DC SSCB performance.