IET South Yorkshire Events

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.

The Viking Link is the world's longest land and subsea electricity interconnector, a 1.4 GW cable connecting the UK (Lincolnshire) and Denmark (southern Jutland) to share clean energy, improving security and potentially lowering costs for up to 2.5 million homes by linking to Denmark's renewable sources. This visit will give an overview of the overview of the construction, operation and maintenance of the facility.