Patent ID: 8159082

Claim:
A marine vessel power and propulsion system that provides a vessel-wide uninterruptible power supply, said power and propulsion system comprising: a propulsion system comprising a prime mover coupled to, and configured to drive, a motor/generator and a propulsion device, said motor/generator configured to generate alternating current (AC) electric power; a ship-service electrical system comprising a generator set and an AC ship-service bus, said generator set configured to generate ship-service electric power for distribution over said AC ship-service bus; and a bi-directional converter configured to couple said propulsion system to said ship-service electrical system, to convert AC electric power generated by said propulsion system to AC ship-service electric power for distribution over said AC ship-service bus and to convert ship-service electric power from said AC ship-service bus to AC electric power for powering said motor/generator and driving the propulsion device.