Blackout Situation on Ship & Actions

What Is Black Out? 

Black Out on Ship is a common term which
is used, when she loses all the power due to the failure of
generators.

Why Blackout Happens? 

Generally, on most of the ships we have three generators; one is main, one
standby and one for any type of maintenance being carried out on it. Following
could be the reason of Blackout happening:

1. Generator Malfunction: If any type of problems occurs in machine like fuel pump failure, lube oil pressure loss, it will stop. Although we have a Power Management System on ships, which facilitates stating of another generator who is on standby, time difference in taking load will
cause the blackout.

2. Overload on Air Circuit Breaker: If sudden power is drawn from the generator
like starting of heavy pumps and if the power drawn exceeds the power given by
the generator, a complete power loss will take place.

3. Fire in Electrical Panel: One of the most dangerous things to happen.
Any fire in the main switchboard due to circuit or anything will result in
power loss.

4.During Change of Filters:
While changing over from one filter to another, if the process is not smooth,
will result in loss of fuel for the machinery, and it will stop.

What to Do in Case of a Blackout?

In case of Blackout following precautions and actions should be taken:-

1. Never panic in such situation, be calm and composed. Emergency generator will restore the power in no time.
2. Inform Officer on bridge briefly about the condition.
3. Call for man power and inform the chief engineer.
4. If the main propulsion plant is running, bring the fuel lever to zero position.
5. Close the feed of the running purifier to avoid overflow and wastage of fuel.
6. If auxiliary boiler was running, shut the main steam stop valve to maintain the steam pressure.
7. Find out the problem and reason for blackout and rectify the same.
8. Before starting the generator set, start the pre- lubrication priming pump if the supply for the same is given from the emergency generator; if not, then use manual priming handle (provided in some generator).
9. Start the generator and take it on load. Then immediately start the main engine lube oil pump and main engine jacket water pump.
10. Reset breakers and start all the other required machinery and system. Reset breakers that are included in preferential tripping sequence. (Non-essential machinery).
11. It requires both skill and patience to tackle a situation like blackout specially when the vessel is sailing or maneuvering. However, the best way to tackle such situations is to be calm and composed; and to know your engine room and machinery very well in advance.

How Can We Avoid Black Out Situation?

Well on every ship engineers try to make sure that none of the situation occurs, but sometimes there are some factors that are not in to the hands of human being. But during the maneuvering
operations, it is always good practice to run two generators together. So in any case if one goes down, other can take load. If a vessel has a history of blackout happening from a certain cases, immediate consideration should be taken about it and prior readiness for the same needs to made sure.

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References: 

Marine Engineers' World (Facebook)

Bangladesh Marine Academy

Mariners Galaxy

Marine Insight