Page 40: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (May/Jun 2026)

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TECH FEATURE MARINE ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS

ORGANIZED

LIGHTNING:

Understanding the Evolution of Marine Electrical Systems

By Will Ayers, PE | Chief Electrical Engineer, Elliott Bay Design Group ow well do we really understand the electri-

FROM SPACE TO SEA: cal systems powering today’s vessels? Many of

EXPANDING ELECTRICAL CAPABILITIES us realize how important electricity is to our

One exciting area that the US leads the world in is the modern world but may be a bit shaky on the marinization of space technology. Such examples include

Hspecifcs. The Welsh comedian Tommy Coo-

Rocket Lab's autonomous station-keeping barge Return per once joked, "Electricity is a wonderful thing. Do you On Investment being converted at Bollinger Shipyards in realize that if we didn't have electricity, we'd be watching Amelia, La. Blue Origin used the advanced barge Jacklyn television by candlelight?" last year to successfully land a rocket. SpaceX led the way

For those who have worked on vessels for many years, having landed its frst rocket on an autonomous drone the increasing complexity may be a sore point, especially barge with Of Course I Still Love You dating back to 2016. for those who have been hands-on in their careers and been And, not surprisingly, NASA has a long experience in this zapped a few times. George Carlin once joked, "Electricity area. For instance, they operated two specially-designed is really just organized lightning." ships for space shuttle booster recovery built in 1980 at the

The Growing Complexity of Marine Electrical Systems

Atlantic Marine Shipyard, now BAE Jacksonville.

All kidding aside, the growing complexity of marine

Like offshore oil and gas, autonomous landing barges electrical engineering is becoming a defning factor in usually depend on dynamic positioning (DP) to maintain modern vessel design and operation. At EBDG, we have precise coordinates. And, like offshore, this leads to a clear been fortunate to develop signifcant experience in hybrid advantage for diesel-electric propulsion. Another area that technologies over the last decade. However, if that imme- we've been working on involving DP and diesel-electric diately elicits thoughts of a Prius or Tesla, there is much propulsion is that of research vessels. For all of these diesel- more happening electrically onboard today’s vessels and electric vessel types, it can become a complicated analysis understanding these systems is becoming increasingly im- to decide between the increasingly popular DC grid pro- portant as vessel designs continue to evolve.

pulsion system vs the conventional constant-speed variety. 40 OFFSHORE ENGINEER OEDIGITAL.COM