Navy integrated Power and Energy Corridor (NiPEC)
The Navy integrated Power and Energy Corridor (NiPEC) incorporates into a single modular entity all the components of the electrical distribution system for the main bus power throughout the ship, including main bus cabling, conversion, protection, isolation, control and energy storage.
The corridor runs almost the full length of the ship, penetrating into the forward- and aft-most zones, with redundant corridors separated horizontally and vertically for survivability purposes. Space for the corridor is reserved at the earliest stages of the ship design process, recognizing the importance of these vital systems to the operational performance of the ship. The images below show one possible arrangement for a highly redundant four-corridor example.
The basic component or least replaceable unit of the NiPEC is the Power Electronics Building Block (PEBB), which is envisioned to be a universal converter that is programmed for the specific application when installed. PEBBs may be combined in series or parallel to increase the voltage or current respectively, as required. The NiPEC will contain many, possibly hundreds of, PEBBs, and will provide, among other services, the structural, mechanical and thermal support for the individual PEBBs.
The Navy iPEBB is a sailor-carryable modular unit. In addition to the PEBB modularity, it is expected that the NiPEC sections themselves will be modular; they will be constructed and tested off-hull and installed in the ship as a single component. Since the cabling is built into the NiPEC sections, this reduces the labor associated with routing the main bus cables.