Helping the U.S. Navy to Better Preserve the Environment

The U.S. Navy is deeply committed to changing the way energy is used and produced, including preserving the environment, planning and mitigating the harmful effects of climate change. Specialised in technologies addressing energy efficiency, GE’s Power Conversion (USA) business was chosen by Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) to build a test system for a cleaner and more productive future in full scale testing of shipboard propulsion and electrical distribution systems at its Naval Ship Systems Engineering Station (NAVSSES).

In a traditional testing environment, power transmitted from the grid, passes through a test system and the tested equipment with waste heat is then released to the environment. However, GE’s solution integrates two motors at the end of the cycle that re-captures the energy and recycles it back into the testing system. As a result, it improves overall energy efficiency for the facility and also saves on fuel consumption. In addition, the GE technology reduces carbon emissions from the facility, further strengthening the U.S. Navy’s commitment to protecting the environment.

GE’s long-term relationship with the U.S. Navy includes supplying advanced power and propulsion solutions for a variety of vessel types. GE also has strong references for test benches, where they have supplied several turnkey projects in various industries to improve testing and, ultimately, the performance of tested machines.

For this particular project, GE is providing MV7000 medium voltage drives, two pole synchronous machines, a tandem load machine, a shaft system, and engineering and construction support. The electrical test system is projected to be commissioned at the beginning of 2017.