Abstract The increase in the popularity of the medium voltagede (MVDC) electrical distribution, as a possible evolution of themedium voltage ae (MVAC) electrical distribution for the ship on-board power systems, arises a need for a comparative evaluationand demonstration of feasible technologies for the MVDC supplies. For designing the MVDC supplies in the range from 5-35 kVdifferent available technologies can be considered for the designsand have a direct infuenee on the overall system performance. Inthis paper, different technologies for prime movers, electrical gen-erators and rectifiers are discussed in terms of feasibility for theMVDC supplies. Different supply configurations can be envisionedfrom these based on the commercial availability, quality of supply,efficieney, dynamic performance and volume. Multi-phase multipulse supply configurations are identified and proposed for themarine MVDC systems. Combination of multi-phase generatorsand multi-pulse rectifiers offer reliable, simple and fault tolerantsolution with acceptable dynamies. To explore and highlight thesebenefits, a six-pulse rectifier sub-module is designed and analysedin two arrangements for multi-pulse configurations, namely parallel and series. It has been shown that with appropriate selection ofsemiconductor devices, coupled with properly selected fast fuses,excellent fault current (thermal) withstand capabilities can beachieved.