  Electrical weapons and combat systems integrated into ships create challenges
for their power systems. The main challenge is operation under high-power ramp
rate loads, such as rail-guns and radar systems. When operated, these load
devices may exceed the ships generators in terms of power ramp rate, which may
drive the system to instability. Thus, electric ships require integration of
energy storage devices in coordination with the power generators to maintain
the power balance between distributed resources and load devices. In order to
support the generators by using energy storage systems, an energy management
scheme must be deployed to ensure load demand is met. This paper proposes and
implements an energy management scheme based on model predictive control to
optimize the coordination between the energy storage and the power generators
under high-power ramp rate conditions. The simulation and experimental results
validate the proposed technique in a reduced scale, notional electric ship
power system.
