DDG test could save warships fuel

[unhappycamper]

DDG test could save warships fuel
Staff report
Posted : Thursday Nov 6, 2008 17:23:44 EST

Surface warships could save millions of gallons of fuel per year if the Navy can apply the lessons of one destroyer’s experiment across the fleet.

On its recent deployment in the Western Pacific, the destroyer Halsey experimented with running one of its three main electrical generators at night, instead of the normal practice of running two at all times. Just as civilian demand for electricity dips overnight, engineers calculated the destroyer needed less power after dark, and could save fuel by switching off one of its gas turbine generators, according to a Navy announcement.

“This is due to several factors, including cooler nighttime temperatures that reduce air conditioner load, less starting and stopping of equipment due to maintenance, and lights turned off in crew berthing areas and unoccupied spaces,” said Gas Turbine Systems Technician (Mechanical) 1st Class (SW) Ganeshwar Rao, the ship’s leading fuels petty officer. “As a result, even one generator’s output capacity exceeds the average nighttime electrical load by 30 percent or more.”

The normal practice for a new-model destroyer such as the Halsey, commissioned in 2005, is to run two generators and keep a third offline in reserve or for repairs. Running just one generator at night saved between 600 and 900 gallons of fuel per day, the Navy said.

But unlike most civilian electricity customers, a warship’s power requirements can spike at any moment if duty calls. Sailors aboard the Halsey and engineers ashore had to test whether the ship could quickly switch on its power-hungry sensors and combat systems when it was in its nighttime single-generator mode. It could, they found.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/11/navy_ddg_fuelsaving_110608w/%2e