Electric Boats For Beijing’s Reservoir

Danfoss Editron has provided the electric power equipment for two electric workboats in Beijing. The vessels will carry out water quality control testing and engineering operations on the Miyun Reservoir.

The vessels have been commissioned by the Chinese government as part of a directive for inland marine boats to reduce emissions. The 180 sq m Miyun Reservoir, located eight miles north east of Beijing, provides clean water to the 21.5 million habitants of the city.

Developed by CSSC Guijiang Shipyard and the CSIC Shanghai Marine Diesel Research Institute (CSIC 711 Institute), both vessels are equipped with an Editron marine system. This system, said Editron, is half the size of conventional diesel-electric propulsion and power plant systems.

The fully-electric, 68 ft. engineering workboat will be used to carry out rescue operations, forest fire prevention and cleaning missions. It is equipped with an AC power system and driven by two rotary propellers powered by variable speed electric motors and has a reported 124 mile operational range. Danfoss Editron has provided two propulsion motors which use synchronous reluctance assisted permanent magnet technology, as well as inverters and active front end drives.

The second vessel is a 78 ft. hybrid water quality monitoring vessel that will undertake daily and emergency water samples and sludge collection testing. The boat will be powered by electric power only, giving it an operational range of 31 miles, though it is also equipped with a diesel generator as backup in case of emergencies. For this vessel, Danfoss Editron provided a DC power system consisting of two synchronous reluctance assisted permanent magnet propulsion motors and inverters, two sets of bidirectional high-power DC/DC, and two sets of microgrid controllers.