What is AMP in ships ?

Alternate Maritime Power or AMP is an anti-pollution measure which helps in reducing air pollution generated from diesel generators by using shore electric power as a substitute.

AMP is used when the ship is halting at a port so that the engines of the ship (working on diesel) do not need to be used unnecessarily. This, in turn, helps in reducing the emissions from the ships by a great margin. This process is also called cold ironing.

ALTERNATE MARINE POWER (AMP)

The process of cold ironing can be explained with the help of a few simple steps:

• 
  When the ships are being loaded or unloaded in a port or dock, alternate marine power is supplied to them
• This is done so with the help of supply cables that are plugged into an electricity supply board in the port on one end and to the ship’s power supply board on the other
• The process is called cold ironing because, in the olden days when the ship’s mainframe engines used to be rested, they used to get cold while the power was being transferred in this manner
• The process leads not just preservation of the marine ecosystem but also contributes to lesser usage of diesel and other oily power supply materials
• AMP provides power for lights, refrigerators, air-conditioners and other equipment on a ship
• The power coming from the shore can be from a separate power generation unit or from the power plant supplying power to the port city or town.

At present, there are four different variations in the AMP that is provided from the port to a ship or a tanker. The same can be listed as follows:

• 11000 Volts of AC (Alternate Current)
• 6600 Volts of AC
• 660 Volts of AC
• 440 Volts of AC

Let’s understand each of them below:

Cable Reel

The cable reel is a ship-mounted reel that is designed to handle electrical cables that connect the ship to a land-based power source when moored at a port. The cables act as conduits for electrical power and fibre optic communication.

Once the cables are connected, the cable reel reels up for certain seconds every few minutes (according to the design) in order to recover any slack that results from ship movements and wind by changing to automatic mode. The cable reel is grounded to the hull with the help of a grounding bolt.

Reel Control Center & Pendant

The reel control centre is an IP enclosure, which incorporates the electrical switchgear required to control the cable reel operation. A pendant controller with 4 functions acts as the operator interface, and the indicator lamps mounted on the door of the enclosure provide the feedback.

AMP Connection Box

AMP connection box is the place where shore cables coming from the other end of the cable reel are connected. They are two in number, one at port side and other at the starboard side. The box is used for changing the connection of plugs to the mooring side. Usually, the plugs maintain connection except during maintenance.

6600V Shore Panel 

This panel is a switch gear for receiving electric power from the shore. A vacuum circuit breaker (VCB) and an earthing switch (ES) for high voltage are equipped herein, along with a protection relay for high voltage.

Transformer

When AMP system is in use, the shore side power is transformed from the high voltage to low voltage, and the power is supplied to the main switchboard (MSB).

Main Switchboard

AMP panel in the main switchboard (MSB) can operate by an automatic or manual operation to synchronize with the shore power without leading to blackout situation.

AMP Control Panel

AMP system is controlled by this panel. It has a condition monitoring function.

Fiber Optic Communication

In some AMP systems, fiber optic communication is used between shore and ship. A fiber optic cable goes along inside the cable for the purpose of communication. Clean fiber optic components are a requirement for quality connections between fiber optic equipment. Any contamination in the fiber connection can cause a communication failure. Even microscopic dust particles can cause a variety of problems for optical connections. By comparison, a typical human hair is 50 to 75 micrometres in diameter and is about 8 times larger than a dust particle. So, even though dust might not be visible, it is still present in the air and can deposit onto the connector. In addition to dust, other types of contamination must also be cleaned off the end face.

SLD FOR AMP CONNECTIONS 

Best Electrical & Electronics Websites for Learn

Which are the best Electrical & Electronic Websites for Learn?

Following are the websites for Electrical & Electronics Learning 

1. NPTEL E-Learning Courses
2. Electrical Engineering Portal 
3. Electrical4u
4. All About Circuits 
5. 
   

Some basic concepts of Magnetism & Electromagnetism

MAGNETISM AND ELECTROMAGNETISM

Magnetic Materials

A substance that has the property of being attracted by or attracting the magnet is known as Magnetic Material. 

Three Classes of this are 

1. Paramagnetic Materials

2. Diamagnetic Materials

3. Ferromagnetic Materials

Paramagnetic Materials Example

Ferromagnetic Materials Example 

Magnetic Field :

Space around the poles of a magnet is called the magnetic field, & is represented by magnetic lines of force.

Magnetic Field 

Magnetic Force :

The force Exerted on one magnet by another, either attraction or repulsion, is known as Magnetic force. 

Examples - Compass, Motor, Train Tracks & Roll Coasters

Magnetic Force 

Coulomb's Law :

First Law

Unlike Poles attract each other & like poles repel each other.

Second Law

The force between two magnetic poles 

i)      Directly proportional to the product of their pole strengths.

ii)     Inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

iii)    Depends on the medium in which the poles are placed.

Where,

Magnetic Strengths of Magnetic Poles = m1 & m2

Distance between two magnetic poles = r

Permeability of the medium = u

The force of attraction or repulsion between two magnetic poles = F.

Relative Permeability (ur)

The ratio of the force between two magnetic poles placed at a certain distance in the air to the force between them placed at the same distance in that medium.

Relative Permeability

Magnetic Field Strength (H) 

Force experienced by a unit north pole placed at that point.

Represented By H.

It is a Vector Quantity. 

Magnetic Field Strength

Magnetic Potential

Work required to move the unit (one weber) north pole from infinity to that point against the magnetic force.

It is a Scaler Quantity,

i.e. it has magnitude only.

Magnetic Lines of Force 

What is power factor Correction?

Power Factor Correction

What is power factor correction?

• A technique used to improve the power factor of ac circuits by reducing the reactive power present in the circuit. 
• The main target for power factor correction is to increase the efficiency of the circuit & reduced the current drawn by the load.
• It reduces the phase shift between voltage & current, so it tries to keep the power factor to unity.
• The most economical value is between 0.9 to 0.95.

Need for power factor correction

• In AC Circuits, voltage & current are sinusoidal waves. Hence, the magnitude & direction changes continuously. At the particular instant of time, the power dissipated is a multiplication of voltage & current at that instant.
• If an AC circuit having inductive loads having a winding, chowk coils, solenoid, transformer the current is out of phase with the voltage.

Power Factor Correction Circuit

• For power factor correction we mainly used Capacitor, Capacitor Bank, and Synchronous condenser.
• According to equipment used there are 3 types

1. Capacitor Bank
2. Synchronous Condenser
3. Phase advancer

Capacitor Bank

Synchronous Condenser

Phase Advancer

Applications of Power factor Correction

1. In the transmission network high power factor is necessary. by using Power factor correction methods high power losses reduced & voltage regulation improved.

2. In an industrial plant induction motor used. This method reduced heat dissipation and Improved the efficiency of the system.

3. PFC Equipment reduces heat generation of the cables, alternator, switchgear, etc.

4. Generate less energy due to the high efficiency of the network. this reduces carbon emission.