In order to provide required voltage and redundancy for essential services, shipboard batteries are arranged in what configuration?

• A. Single large battery.
• B. Banks.
• C. Series connections only.
• D. Parallel strings only.

Answer: (B)

The idea is to use banks of batteries. A bank is a group of batteries wired together so you can tailor both the voltage and the capacity for essential shipboard loads. Inside a bank, cells are connected in series to reach the required voltage. Multiple banks can then be connected in parallel to increase overall capacity and provide redundancy. This setup lets you power critical services reliably: if one bank or a portion of a bank is taken offline for maintenance or if a fault occurs, the other banks can continue supplying power without dropping the essential loads. A single large battery wouldn’t give modular redundancy, and using only series or only parallel connections wouldn’t both meet the voltage requirement and offer the needed backup capability.