Reliability Assessment of Meshed DC Shipboard Power Systems Using Stochastic Simulation

Abstract

In DC shipboard power systems (DC-SPS), the enhanced network complexity and high penetration of power electronic devices make the system level reliability a critical design aspect. This paper proposes a stochastic framework for the reliability assessment of DC-SPSs based on a three-stage Monte Carlo (MC) simulation, including component failure sampling, active fault propagation, and reliability index calculation. The proposed MC framework is verified for a simplified meshed DC grid through comparison with an analytical method. Later, the advantages of the MC method are demonstrated for a dynamic positioning vessel equipped with a ring-type DC power system architecture. The results quantify the impact of redundancy on the reliability of a DC-SPS, show the spread in the subsystem repair times, and reveal the system's availability during both the initialization and steady-state. Combined, the simulation results reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the designed grid, guiding the focus for future reliability enhancements.