Original Article

Proc IMechE Part M:

J Engineering for the Maritime Environment
2022, Vol. 236(3) 644–657
A novel hybrid energy management Ó IMechE 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
strategy of a diesel-electric hybrid ship sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/14750902211068931

based on dynamic programing and journals.sagepub.com/home/pim

model predictive control

Yupeng Yuan1,2,3 , Mingshuang Chen1,2,3, Jixiang Wang1,2,3,

Wanneng Yu4,5 and Boyang Shen6

Abstract
The energy-saving characteristics of diesel-electric series hybrid ships largely depend on their energy management strat-
egy. In this paper, a strategy that combines dynamic programing and model predictive control (DP-MPC) is proposed to
solve the energy management problems of diesel-electric hybrid ships. The DP-MPC strategy has considered some typi-
cal working conditions of a ship, and the corresponding influence of white noise disturbance on the control strategy was
studied. The simulation results show that the DP-MPC strategy has an excellent anti-interference capability. The control
performance of the DP-MPC strategy is then further analyzed and compared with the rule-based logic threshold control
strategy. The simulation results show that the proposed DP-MPC strategy can save 2.5% of the fuel consumption and
has a better anti-interference capability than the rule-based control strategy.

Keywords
Hybrid ship, energy management, model predictive control (MPC), anti-interference capability

Date received: 7 July 2021; accepted: 7 December 2021

Introduction energy flow between different energy sources and

Due to the continuous development of the global ship-
ping industry, the fuel consumed by ships is increasing
annually.1 Since fuel consumption is positively corre-
lated with the emission of greenhouse gases and pollu-
tants, if no measures have been taken, it is estimated
that the carbon dioxide emissions of the shipping indus-
try will account for approximately 12%–18% of global
anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.2
Furthermore, the nitrogen oxide emissions caused by
the shipping industry account for 15% of global nitro-
gen oxide emissions now, which is expected to increase
in the absence of efficient control scheme.3
When the exceptional charging and discharging per-
formance in a short time period of supercapacitor are
considered, a hybrid ship propulsion system composed
of a diesel generator and supercapacitor pack is
regarded as a highly efficient vessel that will achieve
both the energy saving and emission reduction for the
shipping industry.4 The performance or fuel economy
of a diesel-electric hybrid ship largely depends on its
energy management strategy, which can coordinate the
improve the efficiency of the power system.5 According
to whether the power distribution process needs to
solve the optimization model, the control strategy can
1
Reliability Engineering Institute, School of Transportation and Logistics
Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
2
National Engineering Research Center for Water Transport Safety,
Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
3
Key Laboratory of Marine Power Engineering &Technology (Ministry of
Transport), Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
4
Fujian Province Key Laboratory of Naval Architecture and Marine
Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen, China
5
School of Marine Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen, China
6
Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Corresponding authors:
Wanneng Yu, Fujian Province Key Laboratory of Naval Architecture and
Marine Engineering, Jimei University, 176 Shigu Road, Jimei, Xiamen
361021, China.
Email: wnyu2007@jmu.edu.cn
Yupeng Yuan, Reliability Engineering Institute, School of Transportation
and Logistics Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, 1040 Heping
Avenue, Wuhan, Hubei 430063, China.
Email: ypyuan@whut.edu.cn
Yuan et al.
be divided into two categories: one is the rule-based
control strategy that favors engineering applications,
and the other is the optimal control strategy that
focuses on optimal modeling and solving.4,6
The rule-based energy management strategy divides
the ship navigation mode into several types according
to the working state of the power system, and then
switches the mode according to the corresponding
rules. According to the degree of clarity of the control
rules, the rule-based control strategy can be refined into
two categories: deterministic rule control and fuzzy
control.7 Nelson et al.8 and Torreglosa et al.9 proposed
the logic threshold control strategy of a hybrid power
system when implementing the energy management for
multi-energy hybrid ships. Moreover, Khan et al.10 and
Yuan et al.11 applied fuzzy logic control to study the
hybrid power system of multi-energy ships and attained
good results. The advantage of the rule-based control
strategy is that it is easy to design and implement.
However, for the energy control of multi-energy ships
with complex configurations, the processing of rules is
more difficult, and the control effect is not as perfect as
expected. Therefore, the rule-based control strategy is
more suitable for simple power systems of ships.
Recently, many scholars have applied optimized
control strategies on the energy management problem
of hybrid ships.12 For example, Kanellos et al.13 pro-
posed an energy management strategy that applies
dynamic programing (DP) algorithms to optimize the
power generation dispatching of an entire power sys-
tem. Their results show that such a strategy can ensure
the stable operation of a power system and improve
energy efficiency. Zhang et al.14 focused on hybrid
ships composed of solar energy, energy storage sys-
tems, and diesel generator sets. They constructed an
energy management controller with the hybrid system’s
power as the input and the direct current (DC) bus’s
output power as the output, and used particle swarm
optimization (PSO) algorithm to optimize the objective
function, which meant to realize the minimum fuel con-
sumption. Through the simulation, it was found that
the energy management strategy using PSO algorithm
can effectively reduce the fuel consumption of the
entire ship. These two optimization strategies belong to
global optimization control algorithm, which has
strong universality and they are suitable for parallel
processing. The global optimization control algorithm
relies on rigorous theoretical basis, rather than expert
experience. By using these algorithms, the globally opti-
mal solution can be found, but it is difficult to find it in
an acceptable time range. Therefore, this kind of algo-
rithm has not been applied in the practical engineering,
it is mainly used as a good benchmark for an optimal-
ity comparison instead.15
The real-time optimization is only concerned with
the energy flow control of the instantaneous working
conditions, which has a strong real-time performance
and can compensate the deficiency of the global optimi-
zation. The common real-time optimization control
645
strategies include equivalent fuel consumption minimi-
zation strategy and model predictive control (MPC)
algorithm.16,17 For a multi-energy hybrid ship com-
posed of fuel cells and batteries, Kalikatzarakis et al.18
established a minimum instantaneous equivalent fuel
consumption model of the hybrid power system. They
took a ship’s operating parameters as an example, and
calculated the fuel economy of the hybrid-electric sys-
tem using this strategy by simulation. The simulation
results showed that the minimum instantaneous equiva-
lent fuel consumption strategy had several advantages
regarding the improvement of the energy-saving effect
of hybrid ships. Furthermore, Saad et al.4 and Raziei
and Jiang19 designed a model predictive controller to
coordinate the output of various energy sources in
order to stabilize the voltage of a medium-voltage DC
powered ship. The simulation results showed that this
controller could realize the voltage stability of the
medium-voltage DC network in different working
environments.
Although a lot of researches on optimal control
strategy have been carried out, there are still some defi-
ciencies in various optimization algorithms. The opti-
mization performance of rule-based optimization
algorithm is poor, and the formulation of rules depends
on a lot of engineering experience. The application of
global optimization algorithm needs to know the whole
working conditions in advance, and it needs large
amount of calculation. In addition, although the real-
time optimization algorithm can achieve the real-time
control and has good anti-interference capability, the
results are not globally optimal. Therefore, how to
combine the advantages of various algorithms to design
the optimal control strategy has become a new research
hotspot in this field.
Considering that MPC algorithm has good anti-
interference capability and can deal with multi-variables
and system constraints effectively, and moreover the
DP algorithm can obtain the globally optimal solution,
this paper proposes an MPC strategy combined with
DP algorithm, the state of energy (SOE) of supercapaci-
tor obtained by the DP algorithm is taken as the con-
straint condition of the supercapacitor’s value in the
MPC optimization process. To be more specific, for the
energy management problem of diesel-electric hybrid
ship, the globally optimal solution of SOE obtained by
solving the dynamic programing equation is used as the
constraint of the state variable in the real-time optimi-
zation algorithm, so as to obtain an optimization algo-
rithm with strong anti-interference ability whose result
is approximately the global optimum. The suggested
strategy combines the characteristics of the optimal
control effect and fuel economy of the DP algorithm
with the advantages of the good real-time and strong
anti-interference performance of the MPC algorithm.
By taking the real-time SOE of supercapacitors and the
transient fuel consumption of the diesel generator as
the state variables, the power output of supercapacitors
as the control variable, and the minimal difference
646 Proc IMechE Part M: J Engineering for the Maritime Environment 236(3)

Figure 1. Power system of the diesel-electric hybrid ship ‘‘Meiwei Kaiyue.’’

between the SOE of supercapacitors and reference val- Supercapacitor model

ues as the objective function, the MPC controller was The supercapacitor bank consists of multiple parallel
designed to realize the optimal energy distribution of and series units,20 where each unit should be equivalent
each energy source. to the resistance of a series capacitor. The model of the
This article is constructed as follows: Section 2 shows supercapacitor bank can be expressed as:
the mathematical model of the diesel-electric hybrid
power system for the ship; Section 3 presents a control Puc ðtÞ = VL ðtÞ  Icap (t) ð1Þ
strategy of energy management using the DP-MPC;
Section 4 presents the modeling results with detailed 1
analysis; Section 5 concludes the entire article. V_ cap (t) = Icap (t) ð2Þ
C

Q(t) CVcap (t) Vcap (t)

Diesel-electric hybrid power system SOC(t) = = = ð3Þ
Qmax CVmax Vmax
model
This paper focuses on a diesel-electric hybrid ship E(t) 1
CVcap (t)2 Vcap (t)2
named ‘‘Meiwei Kaiyue,’’ whose power system consists SOE(t) = = 21 2
= 2 = SOC(t)2
Ecap 2 CV max V max
of diesel generators and supercapacitor packs. The
power system is illustrated in Figure 1. ð4Þ
There are four diesel generator sets and two superca-
pacitor packs in the whole ship power system. In order In equations (1)–(4): Puc ðtÞ is the instantaneous
to carry out efficient analysis, this paper simplifies the input and output power of the supercapacitor, kW, and
power system, and chooses a diesel generator and one is in a charging state when the value is positive; VL ðtÞ is
supercapacitor pack to carry out the investigation. the terminal voltage of the supercapacitor at time t, V;
The simplified model of the diesel-electric hybrid Icap ðtÞ is the real-time current flowing through the
power system is shown in Figure 2. The parameters of supercapacitor, A; V_ cap (t) is the first derivative across
the main equipments of the simplified model are listed the equivalent capacitor voltage at time t, A/F; C is the
in Table 1. capacity of the supercapacitor, F; SOC(t) is the real-
Yuan et al. 647

Figure 2. Simplified model of the diesel-electric hybrid power system.

Table 1. The basic parameters of the ship’s power system.

Component Parameters Capacity/quantity

Diesel engine Maximum power 1320 kW

Rated power 1250 kW
Rated speed 1000 (r/min)
Number of sets 1
Generator Rated power 1250 kW
Rated torque 11,937.5 (Nm)
Rated speed 1000 (r/min)
Number of sets 1
Supercapacitor Capacitance 65 F
Voltage 604–820 V
Discharge time 12 s
Charge-discharge 98%
efficiency Figure 3. Load characteristic curve of the diesel engine.
Charge-discharge Constant power
mode discharge
Rated power 150 kW 8
Number of sets 1 : < 1 Puc ðtÞ
Puc (t) \ 0 (discharge)
hcap Ecap
Main propulsion Rated power 840 kW SOE (t) = ð5Þ
motor : hcap Puc ðtÞ Puc (t) ø 0 (charge)
Ecap
Rated voltage 690 V
Rated speed 1500 (r/min) :
Rated torque 10740.5 (Nm) In equation (5), SOE (t) is the differential form of the
Number of sets 1 supercapacitor’s SOE at time t, and hcap refers to the
efficiency. According to the data provided by the equip-
ment manufacturer, the value of hcap is set as 98%.
time state of charge (SOC) of the supercapacitor; Q(t)
is the amount of charge stored in the capacitor, C; Qmax Diesel engine model
is the maximum amount of charge that the supercapaci-
tor can store at time t, C; Vcap (t) is the voltage across In this paper, in order to achieve the lowest energy con-
the equivalent capacitor at time t, V; Vmax is the maxi- sumption of the entire ship, it is recommended that the
mum voltage of the supercapacitor, V; SOE(t) (SOE is diesel engine works at the rated speed, which can
short for state of energy) is the remaining energy of the appropriately utilize the hybrid ship’s advantages.
supercapacitor at time t; E(t) represents the energy According to the data provided by the manufacturer,
stored in the supercapacitor at time t, J; and Ecap is the the load characteristic curve of the diesel engine at a
maximum energy capacity, J. rated speed of 1000 (r/min) can be fitted, as shown in
The relationship between the differential form of the Figure 3.
SOE, maximum energy capacity, and supercapacitor According to the load characteristic curve of the die-
sel engine, its specific fuel consumption in unit time is
power is shown in formula (5).
B_ e , and the formula is as follows:
648 Proc IMechE Part M: J Engineering for the Maritime Environment 236(3)

Pe be
B_ e = ð6Þ
3600

Where, B_ e is the fuel consumption of the diesel engine

per unit time, g/s; Be is the fuel consumption, g; pe is
the output power of the diesel engine, kW; be is the spe-
cific fuel consumption, g/(kWh).
The fuel consumption of the diesel engine during the
working time t is:

ðt
Be = B_ e dt ð7Þ
t0
Figure 4. MAP diagram of the generator.

Where, t0 represents the start time of the diesel engine.

The combination of formula (6) and formula (7) leads In order to ensure the safety of the entire ship’s
to: power system, the diesel generator’s output power
should be limited. The constraints are shown in equa-
ðt tion (12):
pe be
Be = dt ð8Þ
3600 04Pgen:e (t)4Pgen:emax ð12Þ
t0

In order to ensure the safety of the entire ship’s
power system, the output power of the diesel engine
should be limited. The constraints are shown in for-
mula (9):
04Pe (t)4Pemax ð9Þ
Where, Pe (t) is the instantaneous output power of the
diesel engine, and Pemax is its maximum output power,
which is 1320 kW in this paper.
Generator model
Based on the experimental data from the manufacturer,
the efficiency of the generator can be described by non-
linear three-dimensional mapping. The diagram of the
generator efficiency is shown in Figure 4. According to
formula (10), the generator efficiency hg (m) at point m
can be calculated:
hg (m)ðnm , Tm Þ = f(nm , Tm ) ð10Þ
Where, hg (m) is the efficiency of the generator at point
m; nm is the speed of the generator at point m; Tm is
the torque of the generator at point m; and f represents
the functional relationship between the hg , torque, and
speed.
Therefore, the output power of the diesel generator
can be expressed by formula (11):
Pgen:e (t) = Pe (t)  hg ð11Þ
Where, Pgen:e (t) is the instantaneous output power of
the diesel generator, kW.
Where, Pgen:emax is the diesel generator’s maximum
output power, which is 1250 kW in this paper.
Ship load
As the object ship is still under construction and has
not been launched yet, the relevant load data cannot be
obtained directly. Therefore, this paper uses the electric
load data from a typical electric propulsion ship named
‘‘Alsterwasser,’’ which was provided in Bassam et al.21
We expand it by 100 here, because according to calcu-
lations, the power with the highest power mode and the
cruise mode of ‘‘Meiwei Kaiyue’’ is about 100 times of
that of the ‘‘Alsterwasser.’’Figure 5 shows a part of the
real typical power requirement of the ship during its
voyage. The electrical load in this section includes vari-
ous operating conditions, such as the ship starting, nor-
mal navigation, and departure from the port.
Therefore, it is very suitable for the simulation verifica-
tion, and for the analysis of the proposed energy man-
agement strategy. In actual applications, for the ships
whose power demand is unknown, the required power
of other ships of the same tonnage sailing on this route
should be collected in advance, so as to obtain approxi-
mate power and then solve the dynamic programing
equation. The parameters of the electrical load are
shown in Table 2.
Power balance model of the entire ship
The diesel-electric hybrid ship in this paper is an electri-
cal propulsion series hybrid ship. From the perspective
of energy conservation and power flow, the power bal-
ance model of the electrical power summation node of
the whole ship is shown in Figure 6.
Yuan et al. 649

Table 2. The load parameters under given conditions.

Running time 350 s

Maximum power 1706.6 kW

Minimum power 187.7 kW
Average power 1105.7 kW

As shown in Figure 6, the power relationship

between the diesel engine Pe , diesel generator Pgen:e ,
supercapacitor Puc , and ship load Preq can be described
as:

Pgen:e (t) = Puc (t) + Preq (t) ð13Þ

Figure 5. Electrical load characteristic curve of the ship.
Pgen:e (t) Puc (t) + Preq (t)
Pe (t) = = ð14Þ
hg hg

minimum remaining power of the supercapacitor (0.16

In equations (13) and (14), Preq (t) is the instanta- in this paper).
neous load power demand of the diesel-electric hybrid
power system, kW.
The constraints that Puc needs to satisfy can be An energy management strategy based on
deduced from equation (15), which is as follows: dynamic programing and model predictive
control (DP-MPC)
Pgen:emin  Preq ðtÞ4Puc ðtÞ4Pgen:emax  Preq ðtÞ
ð15Þ MPC controller design
As an optimal control method, MPC originated from a
In addition, in order to ensure the safe and stable control technology in the chemical industry.22 It is char-
operation of the entire power system, the values of Puc acterized by slow dynamics, which provide enough time
and the supercapacitor’s SOE must meet the physical for optimal calculations. According to the diesel-electric
constraints under hardware conditions: hybrid power system model in Section 2, the model pre-
dictive controller can be expressed by the following
Pucmin 4Puc (t)4Pucmax ð16Þ equations:
(
1 u
SOEmin 4SOE(t)4SOEmax ð17Þ u \ 0 (Discharge)
x_ 1 = hcap Ecap u ð18Þ
hcap Ecap u ø 0 (Charge)

In equations (16) and (17): according to the hybrid !

ship power system specifications, Pucmax represents the Puc + Preq
maximum output power of the supercapacitor, which is x_ 2 = B_ e (Pe ) = B_ e ð19Þ
hg
1100 kW in this paper; Pucmin is the minimum output
power of the supercapacitor, (0 kW in this paper);
SOEmax is the maximum remaining power of the super- In equations (18) and (19): x1 = SOE represents the
capacitor (0.64 in this paper); and SOEmin is the remaining energy of the supercapacitor; x2 = Be

Figure 6. Energy flow of the simplified diesel-electric hybrid ship model.

650 Proc IMechE Part M: J Engineering for the Maritime Environment 236(3)

represents the fuel consumption of the diesel engine; Where, N is the length of the prediction horizon; Q is
and u = Puc represents the control variable, which is the state weight value; R is the input penalty; y is the
the output power of the supercapacitor. measurement output; yref is the reference value; U is the
The definitions of state variables, control variables, control variable matrix as shown in equation (31); and i
measurement inputs, and outputs are as follows: is the number of stage.
  2 3
SOE uð k Þ
x= ð20Þ 6 uð k + 1Þ 7
Be 6 7
U=6 .. 7 ð31Þ
4 . 5
u = Puc ð21Þ uð k + N c Þ

v = Preq ð22Þ
Where, Nc is the predicted length of the control
  variable.
SOE In equations (30), the constraints of y and u are as
y= ð23Þ
Be follows:
ymin 4yðkÞ4ymax , k = 1, 2, . . . , N ð32Þ
The state form of the system after linearization and
discretization is as follows:
umin 4uðkÞ4umax , k = 1, 2, . . . , N ð33Þ
xðk + 1Þ = AðkÞxðkÞ + Bu ðkÞuðkÞ + Bv (k) ð24Þ

yðkÞ = CðkÞx(k) ð25Þ MPC strategy combined with DP

DP equations and results for hybrid ships. The remaining
In equations (24) and (25), k is the time, belonging power SOE value of the supercapacitor is regarded as
to the time set f1, 2,    , Tg, where T is 350. A, Bu ðkÞ, the state variable sk , and the output power Puc of the
Bv (k), and CðkÞ are the following equations supercapacitor is regarded as the decision variable
respectively: uk (sk ). After discretization, the state transition equa-
  tion is as follows:
10
A= ð26Þ s(k + 1) = T(s(k), u(k)) ð34Þ
01
 1

Where, s(k) is the state variable of the k stage, namely,
Bu ðkÞ = Ecap ð27Þ
m1 the SOE value of the remaining energy of the superca-
pacitor; u(k) is the decision variable of the k stage,
  which is, the output power of the supercapacitor Puc ; T
0
Bv ðkÞ = ð28Þ is the function corresponding relationship between the
m1  Preq + m2
state variables and decision variables, showing the rela-
  tionship between the remaining power of the superca-
10
CðkÞ = ð29Þ pacitor and its output power; and k shows to the time
01
set f0, 1,    , T  1g, where T is 350.
The SOE value of a supercapacitor at a certain stage
The minimized index function J can be described as the is equal to the difference between the SOE value of the
sum of the difference between the output term and reference previous stage and that of the current stage. Therefore,
term and the weighted norm of the control input term: the state transition equation (34) can be expressed by
equation (35):
X
N
min J = min SOEk + 1 = SOEðkÞ  DSOE(k) ð35Þ
U U
i=1
 2 
 T 2
Where, DSOE(k) represents the change of the superca-
½yðk + ijkÞ  yref (k + i)  + ku(k + i  1)kR pacitor’s SOE value in the k stage.
Q
Furthermore, according to equation (5), the follow-
X
N
= min f½yðk + iÞjkÞ  yref ðk + iÞT ing can be obtained:
U
i=1 8
< 1 Puc ðkÞ Puc (t) \ 0(Discharge)
Q½yðk + ijkÞ  yref ðk + iÞ + DSOE(k) =
hcap Ecap

u(k + i  1)T Ruðk + i  1Þg

: hcap PEuccapðtÞ Puc (t) ø 0(Charge)
ð30Þ ð36Þ
Yuan et al. 651

For the output power of the diesel generator, the dis-

cretization of equation (11) can be obtained:

Pgen:e (k) = Pe (k)  hg (k) ð37Þ

Where, hg (k) is the generator efficiency in the k stage.

For the power balance model, the discretization of
equation (13) can be obtained:

Pgen:e (k) = Puc (k) + Preq (k) ð38Þ

After the discretization of the inequality constraint

formulas (9), (12), (15), (16), and (17), we can obtain:
Figure 7. Variation curve of the supercapacitor’s SOE value.
04Pe (k)4Pemax ð39Þ

04Pgen:e (k)4Pgen:emax ð40Þ f (sðkÞ, k) = minfVk ðsðkÞ, uðkÞÞ + fk + 1 ðsðkÞ, uðkÞÞg

ð47Þ
Pgen:emin  Preq ðkÞ4Puc ðkÞ4Pgen:emax  Preq ðkÞ
ð41Þ k = n  1, n  2,    , 0 ð48Þ

f ðsðnÞ, nÞ = 0 ð49Þ
Pucmin 4Puc (k)4Pucmax ð42Þ

SOEmin 4SOE(k)4SOEmax
The performance index function of a diesel-electric
hybrid ship in each stage of the DP is the fuel consump-
tion of the entire ship Be , and the diesel engine’s fuel
consumption can be calculated referring to Figure 3
and equation (8). Therefore, the index function Vk of
stage k can be expressed by equation (44):
Vk ðSOEðkÞ, Pe ðkÞÞ = Be (k)
Where, Be (k) is the fuel consumption of diesel engines
in stage k.
The optimal value function fk, n from the k stage to
the n stage can be expressed as:
X
n
fk, n = Vk
i=k
Where, Vk is the stage index function.
Within a given working condition time period T, the
index function of the entire control process is as
follows:
fk = minfk, n
According to the basic theory of the DP algorithm,
the optimal index value of the control system from
stage k to stage n can be expressed by the following
formulas:
ð43Þ In equation (47): sðkÞ is the state variable of the k
stage; u(k) is the decision variable of the k stage; and
f ðsðkÞ, kÞ is the optimal index value of the control sys-
tem from the beginning of the k stage to the end of the
entire control process.
The electrical load data obtained from a typical elec-
trical propulsion ship is selected to represent the simu-
lation working conditions, as shown in Figure 5. The
whole process of 350 s is divided into 350 stages, and
the step length Dt from the k stage to the k + 1 stage is
ð44Þ
taken as 1 s. The upper and lower limits of the state
variable s(k), that is, the SOE values (upper and lower
limits) of the supercapacitor, are set as 0.16 and 0.64
respectively. In order to ensure that the supercapacitor
can normally work in the subsequent simulation, the
termination value of the SOE is set as 0.40. The simula-
tion results are shown in Figures 7 and 8.
Figure 7 shows the variation curve of the supercapa-
ð45Þ
citor’s SOE value under the given working conditions.
According to Figures 5 and 7, when the load is large,
all the energy is used for the energy supply, and the
supercapacitor is in a discharging state, resulting in the
decrease of SOE; when the load is small, the energy
storage elements are used to store energy, the superca-
pacitor is in a charging state, resulting in the increase
of SOE. The supercapacitor plays the role of peak-
ð46Þ
shaving and valley-filling. Globally, the initial value of
the supercapacitor’s SOE is 0.424. Despite several fluc-
tuations, the supercapacitor’s SOE value always works
in a safe range, and finally returns to the set value of
0.40, which means it is prepared for the subsequent
task. The reason is that the result of DP algorithm is
the globally optimal solution to minimize fuel
652 Proc IMechE Part M: J Engineering for the Maritime Environment 236(3)

calculation. In this paper, the SOE of supercapacitor

obtained by the DP algorithm is taken as the constraint
condition of the supercapacitor’s value in the MPC
optimization process, and the reference of the fuel con-
sumption is taken as zero. Equations (15) and (16) are
compulsory to be implemented at each time step, and
the state weight value Q and input penalty R of the sys-
tem are as follows:
 
10000 0
Q= ð50Þ
0 1

R = 10 ð51Þ
Figure 8. Power variation of the diesel generator,
supercapacitor, and power demand.
The objective function transforms the control input
into a quadratic form. When the predicted horizon
consumption of hybrid power system. Therefore, super- length is N, the trajectory of the future state will be
capacitors should have a slightly higher SOE at the obtained through the discrete model:
beginning of the voyage in order to provide some 2 3 2 3
xðk + 1jkÞ A
energy and thus save the fuel. The overall variation
6 7 6 27
trend of the curve demonstrates that the energy man- 6 xðk + 2jkÞ 7 6A 7
6 7 6 7
agement strategy proposed in this paper is effective. 6 . 7 = 6 . 7 xðkjkÞ
6 . 7 6 .. 7
Figure 8 shows the power variation curve of the die- 4 . 5 4 5
sel generator, supercapacitor, and power demand. In N
x(k + Njk) A
this figure, the red curve is the output power of the die- |fflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl} |fflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflffl}

X Sx
sel generator Pgen:e , the blue curve is the output power 2 32 3
of the supercapacitor Puc , and the black curve is the Bu 0 . . . 0 uðkÞ
demand power of the load Preq . It can be seen from 6 76 7
6 ABu Bu . . . 0 76 uð k + 1Þ 7
Figure 8 that the diesel engine is always working at the 6 76 7
+6 ..... . .. 76 .. 7
optimal fuel point of 1080 kW, under all working con- 6 .. .. 76 7
4 54 . 5
ditions, to maintain the lowest fuel consumption of the
AN1 Bu AN2 Bu . . . Bu u(k + N  1)
entire ship. At this time, the corresponding specific fuel |fflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl} |fflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl}
consumption of the diesel generator is L = 191 g/ Su U
2 3
(kW h). When the power demand of the entire ship is Bv ð k Þ
less than the optimal output power of the diesel genera- 6 7
6 ABv ðkÞ + Bv ðk + 1Þ 7
tor (1050 kW), the supercapacitor is in a charging state +6
6 ..
7
7
6 7
and the power is positive, which means the energy stor- 4 . 5
age function can be realized. When the power demand AN1 Bv ðkÞ + AN2 Bv ðk + 1Þ + . . . + Bv ðk + N  1Þ
|fflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl}
is greater than the optimal output power of the diesel V
generator, the supercapacitor is in a discharging state ð52Þ
and participates in the power supply of the power
demand, indicating the power is negative. When the 2 3 2 3
power demand changes drastically, the power of the yðk + 1Þjk C 0 0 0
6 yðk + 2Þjk 7 60 C 0 07
supercapacitor changes drastically as well, indicating 6 7
6 .. 7=64 0 0 ... 05 X
7 ð53Þ
that the supercapacitor has a higher degree of participa- 4 . 5
tion in the energy supply of diesel-electric hybrid ships, yðk + NÞjk 0 0 0 C
|fflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl} |fflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl}
and revealing that the fuel consumption of the entire Y Cx
ship is closer to an economic level. By analyzing Figure
3 with formula (8), we can conclude that the fuel con-
sumption Be of a diesel-electric hybrid ship is 19,730 g By substituting equations (52) and (53) into the orig-
and the average specific fuel consumption is be = 191 g/ inal index function shown in equation (30) and ignoring
(kW h), which are based on the DP algorithm under the the constant term, the convex quadratic index function
given working conditions. that only relates to input can be obtained:
1 T
Jðx0 , u0 Þ = U HU + FT U ð54Þ
The solution of the DP-based MPC algorithm. The MPC 2
algorithm needs to add some constraints to the
Yuan et al. 653

Where,

 ðCx Su Þ + R
H = 2(Cx Su )T Q  ð55Þ

 ðCx Su  Yref Þ
F = 2(Cx Su )T Q ð56Þ

The constraints are:

U ø max(Umin ðUÞ, Umin ðUÞUmin ðxÞ) ð57Þ

U4min(Umax ðUÞ, Umax ðUÞUmax ðxÞ) ð58Þ

In equations (54) and (55): H is a Hessian matrix, Figure 9. Load variation curve.
which can be used to solve large-scale optimization
 R,
problems23; F is a gradient vector; and Q,  and Yref
should be based on the length of the prediction horizon
of Q, R, and Yref . The constraint update of the control
increment can be calculated by the constraint condi-
tions in equations (54) and (30). For example, the state
constraint can be used as Umax and applied to U.

Simulation results and discussion

Disturbance conditions
In order to simulate the power fluctuation caused by
the influence of wind and wave when the ship is navi-
gating in the sea, different levels of disturbance are
added to the given conditions to simulate the real sail-
ing condition. Compared with the conditions shown in
Figure 5, 20%, 25%, and 30% of white noise interfer-
ence are added. In the MPC algorithm, the prediction
horizon is an important parameter. As the prediction
horizon increases, the MPC algorithm gets more data
and can make better decisions. However, the MPC
algorithm is a real time control strategy, and a long
prediction horizon is not conducive to the instant con-
trol effect. We simulated three cases of the prediction
horizon N = 2,5, and 10, and the results show that
N = 5 provides a better balance between following the
optimal SOE value under algorithm DP and the speed
of calculation, so the prediction horizon N in this paper
is set as 5, and the initial value of the supercapacitor’s
SOE is set as 0.40. After adding different degrees of
white noise interference to the given condition, the load
variation curve, SOE value of the supercapacitor under
the DP-MPC strategy, output power of the supercapa-
citor, and output power of the diesel generator are
shown in Figures 9 to 12.
Figure 9 shows the load variation curve under differ-
ent interference levels. With the increase of interference,
the fluctuations of load data become more severe. The
greater the interference, the greater the average power
of the load will be. In practical applications, the actual
working conditions will be distributed around typical
pre-set working conditions with uncertainty or interfer-
ence. Therefore, adding a certain degree of interference
Figure 10. SOE value of the supercapacitor under the DP-MPC
strategy.
to evaluate the anti-interference capability of the MPC
algorithm is of good practical significance.
Figure 10 shows the SOE curve of the supercapacitor
under the DP-MPC strategy. It can be seen that as the
interference increases, the time taken for the SOE value
of the supercapacitor under the DP-MPC strategy to
track the SOE reference value becomes longer, and it
may even fail to track. However, when the disturbance
is below 25%, SOE curves change along with the refer-
ence path obtained by DP algorithm, which indicates
that the system has a good anti-interference capability.
Figure 11 shows the output power curve of the
supercapacitor under different disturbance conditions.
It can be seen that when the interference increases, the
output power fluctuation of the supercapacitor under
the DP-MPC strategy becomes more frequent, the
number of charging and discharging time increases,
and the time spent on the high-power discharge state
becomes longer. The reason for this is that the load
changes too drastically with the increase in disturbance,
but the diesel generator has power limitations.
Figure 12 shows the output power variation curve of
the diesel generator under different disturbances. It can
be seen that when the disturbance increases, the output
power of the diesel generator will also increase
654 Proc IMechE Part M: J Engineering for the Maritime Environment 236(3)

Figure 12. Output power of the diesel generator.

Figure 11. Output power of the supercapacitor.

Table 3. Fuel consumption under different level of Table 4. Control logic of the diesel-electric hybrid power
interference. system.

Interference Fuel Average specific fuel Condition Supercapacitor status Energy flow
quantity consumption (g) consumption (g/kWh)
Preq \ Pe Thebest Charging Pgen:e = hg  Pe
20% 24,485.0 192.3 SOE \ SOEmax Puc = Pgen:e  Pdc
25% 24,874.5 193.2 Preq \ Pe Thebest Not working Pgen:e = hg  Pe
30% 26,313.4 199.2 SOE ø SOEmax Puc = 0
Preq = Pe Thebest Not working Pgen:e = hg  Pe
Puc = 0
Preq . Pe Thebest Discharging Pgen:e = hg  Pe
significantly, and the time of the engine running at full SOE . SOEmin Puc = Pdc  Pgen:e
load will be longer, resulting in the increase of fuel con- Preq . Pe Thebest Not working Pgen:e = hg  Pe
SOE4SOEmin Puc = 0
sumption throughout the whole voyage. The reason is
that the increase in disturbance makes the load change
too drastically, and the SOE value of the supercapaci-
in kW. According to Table 4, the specific control rules
tor needs to track the reference, which cause the output
are as follows:
power rise of the diesel generator. The fuel consump-
tion and average specific fuel consumption of the
diesel-electric hybrid power systems under different dis- (1) If the ship’s load Preq is less than Pe The best , and the
turbance levels can be obtained by Figure 3 and equa- SOE of supercapacitor is less than the safe work-
tion (8). They are shown in Table 3. ing value (SOEmax ), the supercapacitor is in the
state of charging, and the excess electric energy
from the diesel generator is recovered. The energy
A comparative analysis flow mode is that the diesel generator supplies
power for the ship load and supercapacitor.
The rule-based logic threshold control strategy is sim- (2) If the ship’s load Preq is less than Pe The best , and the
ple to design and easy to implement, it is widely used in SOE of supercapacitor is more than the safe work-
current industrial control. In this section, this strategy ing value (SOEmax ), the supercapacitor is in the
is adopted to provide a reference for the evaluation of state of no operation, and the energy flow mode is
the proposed DP-MPC algorithm. Since the diesel- that diesel generator supplies power for the ship
electric hybrid power system has a simple structure and load.
all its energy comes from diesel generators, the logic (3) If the ship’s load Preq is equal to Pe The best , the
threshold control strategy of diesel-electric hybrid ships supercapacitor is in the state of no operation, and
adopts the optimal operating point control method. This the energy flow mode is that diesel generator sup-
method takes the SOE value of the supercapacitor and plies power for the ship load.
the demand power as the standard to differ the working (4) If the ship’s load Preq is more than Pe The best , and
conditions. The control logic is shown in Table 4. the SOE of supercapacitor is between the upper
In Table 4, Pe Thebest is the optimal output power cor- limit SOEmax and lower limit SOEmin , the super-
responding to the average output power value of the capacitor is in the state of discharging, and the
diesel generator under the given conditions. The aver- energy flow mode is that diesel generator and
age demand power of the load in this paper is supercapacitor working together to supply power
1105.7 kW, and Pdc is the demand power of the DC bus for the ship load.
Yuan et al.
Figure 13. Load variation curve.
Figure 14. SOE value of the supercapacitor.
(5) If the ship’s load Preq is more than Pe The best , and
the SOE of supercapacitor is beyond the upper
limit SOEmax and lower limit SOEmin , the superca-
pacitor is not working and the diesel generator is
working alone, and the energy flow mode is that
the diesel generator supplies power for the load.
The simulation results of the logic threshold control
strategy without interference and with 20% interference
are obtained. The overall performance of the DP-MPC
strategy is compared and analyzed under the same
interference conditions. The predicted horizon length N
is set as 5. The initial value of the supercapacitor SOE
is set as 0.40. The relevant results are shown in Figures
13 to 16.
Figure 13 shows the load variation curve without
interference and with 20% interference under a given
condition. It can be seen that after adding 20% inter-
ference, the load fluctuation clearly becomes larger.
Moreover, after adding 20% white noise, the load fluc-
tuates more violently, and there is a certain deviation
from the data. For example, at 150 s, the load deviation
is about 200 kW.
Figure 14 shows the SOE curve of supercapacitors
under different control strategies. The changing trend
of the SOE value of the supercapacitor under the rule-
based logic threshold control strategy is roughly the
655
Figure 15. Output power of the supercapacitor.
Figure 16. The output power of the diesel generator.
same as that under the DP-MPC algorithm, but its ter-
mination value does not return to 0.40. The reason is
that the excessive disturbance causes the load’s average
power deviate, while the diesel generator is always
maintained at the load’s average demand power of
1205 kW. In order to maintain the power balance of the
diesel-electric hybrid power system, the supercapacitor
is in the discharging state, and the anti-interference
capability of the system is low.
Figure 15 shows the output power variation curve of
the supercapacitor. According to the output power
curve with 20% interference under the DP-MPC strat-
egy and under the rule-based logic threshold control
strategy, the output power of the supercapacitor fluctu-
ates more frequently, and the number of charging and
discharging time increases significantly, particularly in
the time range of 200 to 350 s. The reason is that the
increase in disturbance makes the load change drasti-
cally, while the diesel generator maintains a constant
power output. Therefore, the supercapacitor needs
more charging time and discharging time to ensure the
power supply. As seen from Figure 15, the proposed
control strategy has the better anti-interference capabil-
ity. Since when 20% disturbance is added to the
required power, the output power fluctuation of the
656 Proc IMechE Part M: J Engineering for the Maritime Environment 236(3)
Figure 17. Fuel consumption of two control algorithm under
20% disturbance.
supercapacitor under the proposed strategy is the smal-
lest, followed by the rule-based control strategy, and
the output power fluctuation of the supercapacitor
under the dynamic programing algorithm is the largest.
Figure 16 shows the output power curve of the diesel
generator. Compared with the output power curve with
20% interference under the DP-MPC strategy and no
interference, the output power of the diesel generator
under the logic threshold control strategy with 20%
interference is maintained at 1205 kW, and the fuel con-
sumption of the diesel-electric hybrid system is higher.
The reason is that the increase in disturbance causes the
load change drastically, and the average load and out-
put power of the diesel generator increase as well. The
DP-MPC strategy has a good anti-interference capabil-
ity and can overcome the fluctuation of the system.
After adding a 20% disturbance to a given operating
condition, according to Figure 3 and equation (8), the
fuel consumption of the marine diesel-electric hybrid
power system of the rule-based logic threshold control
strategy is 25,117.4 g, and the average specific fuel con-
sumption is be = 197.3 g/(kW h). The fuel consumption
of the DP-MPC strategy is 24,485 g, and the average
specific fuel consumption is be = 192.3 g/(kW h). The
fuel consumption of two control algorithm after adding
a 20% disturbance is shown in Figure 17.
Conclusions
In this paper, an energy management strategy combin-
ing dynamic programing and model predictive control
algorithm has been designed for a diesel-electric hybrid
ship. Furthermore, the influence of different levels of
white noise on the MPC strategy has been analyzed.
The fuel economy of the hybrid system using the same
interference conditions has been compared and ana-
lyzed under the rule-based logic threshold control strat-
egy and the DP-MPC strategy. The main conclusions
are as follows:
(1) The proposed DP-MPC strategy can approxi-
mately obtain globally optimal solution and has
strong anti-interference capability;
(2) The fuel consumption of diesel-electric hybrid
ships using the DP-MPC strategy is lower than
that using the rule-based logic threshold control
strategy. Under the same level of interference, the
fuel consumption of the rule-based logic threshold
control strategy is 25,117.4 g, while that of the
DP-MPC strategy is 24,485 g, which can save
2.5% of the fuel consumption.
The energy management strategy proposed in this
paper can effectively reduce the fuel cost of the ship,
improve the stability of the power system, and provide
an important theoretical basis for the green intelligent
development of the ship, but there is still a certain dis-
tance to the engineering applications. Although the
MPC control strategy combined with dynamic pro-
graming algorithm has a good control effect, it is lim-
ited by a large amount of calculations of dynamic
programing algorithm as well as the operation state
data of the whole ship in advance. Therefore, the con-
trol algorithm needs to be supplemented in practical
applications, such as improving the running speed of
the controller. In the view of the particularity of fixed
cruise segments, it is necessary to analyze working con-
ditions in different seasons, at different times and under
different meteorological conditions through big data,
and then design corresponding energy management
strategies. This will further improve the practicability
of the algorithm and reduce the energy consumption of
the system.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest
with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publi-
cation of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial
support for the research, authorship, and/or publication
of this article: This work is Supported by the Research
Project of Advanced Technology Ship (No: MIIT
[2018]473), the Fundamental Research Funds for the
Central Universities (WUT: 2019III125CG) and the self-
determined and innovative research funds of Wuhan
University of Technology grant 2019-ND-B1-13.
Yuan et al.
ORCID iD
Yupeng Yuan https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9474-
0605
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