Current Supply and Rectifiers

Current supply for medium-sized ships is provided by an instrument in the engine control room or the engine room. With large ships, the rectifier should be installed near the anodes so that only cables of small cross-section are required. Formerly, in such cases two protection units independent of each other were used in the engine room and the forecastle. Meanwhile, the anodes were installed in the rear quarter of the ship, even with large tankers, and the poor current distribution had to be tolerated. 

Another possibility is to decentralize the dc supply. Here the ac supply for the individual protection rectifiers comes from a potential-controlled central supply that is situated in the engine control room. The protection rectifiers can then be situated amidships with relatively short dc cables to the anodes. The dimension of the dc cable should maintain a voltage drop below 2 V. 

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