In maritime operations, the transition toward hybrid and fully electric propulsion is accelerating. This transition is driven by regulatory pressure, fuel costs, and sustainability goals. At the heart of this shift lies a critical technology: the Energy and Power Management System (EPMS). For battery‑hybrid or electric vessels to deliver on performance, reliability, and efficiency, the EPMS must orchestrate all onboard power assets intelligently.
EPMS (Energy & Power Management System) refers to the integrated platform that supervises, controls, and optimizes the generation, storage, and distribution of electrical energy aboard a vessel. It acts as the “brain” that balances multiple power sources (diesel engines, generators, battery banks, fuel cells, shore power) with varying loads (propulsion motors, hotel loads, auxiliaries).
In hybrid and electric ship architectures, EPMS is central for:
- Load balancing & source switching: deciding when to draw from batteries, when to run generators, and how to share load efficiently
- Battery charge/discharge management: optimizing state-of-charge (SoC) windows, avoiding deep cycling or overcharging
- Power sharing and dispatch strategy: allocating power among competing demands while tracking constraints (e.g. ramping, availability)
- Transient load handling: using batteries to absorb fast load changes or surges, reducing stress on generators
- Fault handling, redundancy, safety & resilience: ensuring critical loads remain powered, managing failures, and maintaining stability
- Lifetime and degradation management: mitigating battery aging by choosing more favorable operating regimes
Without a capable EPMS, a hybrid or battery system can underperform by having suboptimal fuel consumption, increased wear on generators, poor battery lifetime, or instability in power quality. Indeed, research in marine hybrid systems highlights that advanced control algorithms and optimization layers within EPMS are necessary to extract full lifecycle benefits.
A well-designed EPMS directly drives improvements in:
By scheduling generator dispatch optimally and offloading transients to batteries, EPMS reduces fuel consumption and generator runtime. In hybrid configurations, EPMS can shift load to battery during low-demand periods to operate generators in more efficient regimes.
Less fuel burn means lower CO₂, NOₓ, and other emissions. EPMS enables hybrid/zero‑emission modes (battery-only, shore-power, or fuel cell integration) in compliance with IMO and regional regulations. SEAM has delivered systems contributing to CO₂ reductions across its installed fleet.
Smart charge/discharge strategies and limiting extreme SoC excursions prevent premature aging. EPMS also ensures battery use is reserved for where it adds value (e.g. transient load support), rather than unnecessary cycling.
EPMS ensures stable voltage and frequency by smoothing fluctuations, managing load shedding, and distributing margins. The battery buffer helps avoid brownouts or instability under sudden demands.
During generator faults or maintenance events, EPMS can reconfigure power flows, leveraging battery capacity or alternate sources to maintain mission‑critical operations.
Although battery and hybrid systems require higher upfront cost, EPMS optimizes utilization and reduces OPEX, enabling a more attractive payback.
SEAM has developed its own automation and power management platform, e-SEAMatic® EPMS, as part of the broader e-SEAMatic® / e-SEA product family. On SEAM’s product pages, several capabilities and differentiators are highlighted.
- Integrated control & automation: SEAM offers a full stack — EPMS is interlinked with vessel automation (IAS), propulsion control, switchboards, drives, and monitoring.
- Source-agnostic flexibility: SEAM’s EPMS can orchestrate diesel generators, battery banks, fuel cells (e.g. hydrogen), and shore power. This allows hybrid, fully electric, or transitional vessels to use a unified management layer.
- Scalable and modular deployment: The platform is built to adapt to various vessel sizes and power levels, from smaller passenger vessels to workboats and ferries. SEAM emphasizes modularity and reuse of components.
- High delivery track record & references: SEAM has delivered systems to over 90 vessels, including retrofits and new builds.
- Advanced R&D and alternative fuel readiness: SEAM is working in areas of hydrogen, ammonia, and future propulsion concepts, preparing EPMS capabilities to cover next-generation technologies.
- Customization & in-house control logic: Because SEAM develops much of its control logic and platform in-house (e-SEAMatic), it can adapt and optimize EPMS behavior per vessel, rather than relying on rigid third-party modules.
SEAM has several reference projects listed on their website. These references underscore SEAM’s ability not only to deliver a capable EPMS, but to integrate it in real-world hybrid/zero-emission vessels under demanding marine conditions.
