R. Sepe Jr. and S. Bastien
Electro Standards Laboratories, Rhode Island, United States
Keywords: Hybrid Energy Storage Systems, Supercapacitors, Pulsed Power Mitigation, Shipboard Power Systems, Active Power Conditioning
Radar and laser systems are critical components of high-performance shipboard systems. However, these systems generate repetitive high-power transients over a wide bandwidth that are difficult to suppress using passive components alone. The resulting electrical bus disturbances degrade sensor and radar performance and can adversely affect other equipment connected to the ship power bus. ESL’s High Attenuation Active Transient Suppression (HAATS) system uses supercapacitor energy storage and actively controlled DC/DC power converters to isolate pulsed loads from the ship DC bus. Optional battery energy storage may be incorporated to provide uninterrupted power supply (UPS) capability and brownout ride-through while remaining isolated from pulsed load stresses. Through multi-loop active control, the supercapacitor supplies transient energy, allowing the ship power system to deliver only the local average power while maintaining a clean, low-noise DC bus. The adaptive architecture accommodates widely varying mission load profiles and enables multiple high-power pulsed loads to operate with minimal interaction. The same approach is also applicable to mitigating transient power demands in AI data centers and other pulsed-power applications, enabling next-generation radar, laser, sensor, and high-performance computing systems.